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form an awful amphitheatre, and through it obliquely runs the
Derwent, clear as glass, and showing under its bridge every trout
that passes. Beside the village rises a round eminence of a rock
covered entirely in old trees, and over that more proudly towers
Castle-cragg, invested also with wood on its sides, and bearing
on its naked top some traces of a fort, said to be Roman, By the
side of this hill, which almost blocks up the way, the valley
turns to the left, and contracts its dimensions till there is
hardly any road but the rocky bed of the river. The wood of the
mountains increases, and their summits grow loftier to the eye,
and of more fantastic forms; among them appear Eagle's-cliff,
Dove's-nest, Whitedale pike, &c. celebrated in the annals of
Keswick. The dale opens about four miles higher, till you come to
Seathwaite, where lies the way, mounting the hill to the right,
that leads to the wad-mines; all farther access is here barred to
prying mortals, only there is a little path winding over the
fells, and for some weeks in the year passable to the dalesmen;
but the mountains know well that these innocent people will not
reveal the mysteries of their ancient kingdom, 'the reign Chaos
and Old Night,' only I learned that this dreadful road, divided
again, leads one branch to Ravenglass, and the other to
Hawkshead.
For me , I went no farther than the farmer's (better than four
miles from Keswick) at Grange; his mother and he brought us
butter that Siserah would have jumped at, though not in a lordly
dish, bowls of milk, thin oaten cakes, and ale, and we had
carried a cold tongue thither with us. Our farmer was himself the
man that last year plundered the eagles' eyrie: all the dale are
up in arms on such an occasion, for they loss (sic) abundance of
lambs yearly, not to mention hares, partridges, grouse, &c. He
was let down from the cliff, in ropes, to the shelf of the rock
on which the nest was built, the people above shouting and
hallooing to frighten the old birds, which did not dare to attack
him. He brought off the eaglet (for there is rarely more than
one) and an addle egg. The nest was roundish, and more than a
yard over, made of twigs
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