button to main menu   West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821

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Page 127:-
removed from the margin of the lake, and under a range of wood, see the solitary church of Bassenthwaite. Its back-ground is gloomy Ullock, a descendant hill of parent Skiddaw, robed in purple heath, trimmed with soft verdure. The whole cultivated tract between the mountains and the lake is seen here in all its beauty, and Skiddaw appears no where of such majestic height as from this point, being seemingly magnified by the accompaniments of the lesser hills that surround its base.
Over the northern extremity of this expanse of water, the ground rises in a (sic) easy slope, and in the point of beauty Armathwaite is seated, queen of the lake, on which she smiles in graceful beauty. On each hand are hanging woods. The space between displays much cultivation, and is divided by inclosures, waving up the farms seen under the skirts of Caer-mot, the Crown-top hill, that closes this scene in the sweetest and most elegant manner possible. If the sun shine, you may be entertained here for hours with a pleasing variety of landscapes. All the views up the lake, are in a style great and sublime. They are seen in the bosom of the lake, softened by reflection, but to the glass is reserved the finished picture, in the truest colouring, and most just perspective.
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gazetteer links
button -- "Armathwaite House" -- Armathwaite Hall
button -- Skiddaw
button -- station, Beck Wythop
button -- Ullock

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