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

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Page 175:-
sycamores and poplars which overshadow its roof, and rustle before the door. Then he comes to the hollow where lies the tarn,- Small Water. Here he will rest again, sitting among scattered or shelving rocks, and drinking from this pure mountain basin. Arrived at the top, he loses sight of Mardale, and greets Kentmere almost at the same moment. The dale behind is wild as any recess in the district: while before him lies a valley whose grandeur is all at the upper end, and which spreads out and becomes shallower with every mile of its recession from the great mountain cluster.
  Kentmere
  Bernard Gilpin
  Kentmere Tarn

When he has gone down a mile, he finds that he is travelling on one side of Kentmere Tongue,- the projection which in this and most other valleys, splits the head of the dale into a fork. When he arrives at the chapel, he finds that there is a carriage-road which would lead him forth to Staveley and Kendal. But he is probably intending to go over into Troutbeck: so he turns up to the right, and pursues the broad zigzag track which leads over the Fell, till Troutbeck opens beneath him on the other side. Before beginning the ascent, however, he will note Kentmere Hall,- the birthplace of Bernard Gilpin, in 1517. If familiar with the old description of the district, he will look for Kentmere Tarn, and wonder to see no trace of it. It is drained away; and fertile fields now occupy the place of the swamp, reeds and shallow water which he might have seen but a few years ago. While this tarn existed, the mills at Kendal were very irregularly supplied with water. Now, when the streams are collected in a reservoir, which the traveller sees in coming down
gazetteer links
button -- Dun Bull
button -- Kentmere Hall
button -- Kentmere Reservoir
button -- Kentmere Tarn
button -- Kentmere
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