button to main menu   Ford's Description of the Lakes, 1839/1843

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Page 49:-
Crag, are the Deargarth Cascades. Armboth House is pleasantly situated on the top of a gentle eminence under the Fells, whence the ground falls in easy slopes all round to the water's edge: the views from the house are commanding, and the eye rests upon the huge surfaces of Helvellyn and the Great Dodd. Raven Crag is a mighty mass of dark, frowning crags, that have braved the fury of many a storm. From its foot, looking diagonally across the lake, Dalehead Hall, amid woods of a modern growth, and, for the first time, the summit of Helvellyn, form a magnificent picture. Hence to the outlet of the lake, where the river may be watched, forming still pools between low meadows of green pasture, and stealing quietly and rather sluggishly away to foam and chafe with the rocks and wilds of Legberthwaite, the traveller will shortly after join the direct road, from which he had diverged in the dreary moss of Shoolthwaite.
From the Horse Head inn, the carriage-road winds under Helvellyn by the margin of the lake, which it leaves by a very steep ascent. This side of the dale presents the sternest features, seen, too, most impressively -

' When the storm
Rides high - when all the upper air is fill'd
With roaring sound, that ceases not to flow
Like smoke, along the level of the blast.'
From the top of this hill, is that admired and magnificent view of Legberthwaite, or, as it is frequently called, the Vale of St. John; here is neither
gazetteer links
button -- "Armboth House" -- Armboth House
button -- "Raven Crag" -- Raven Crag
button -- Ambleside to Keswick
button -- "Leathes Water" -- Thirlmere
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