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Page 36:-
protrudes, splitting the valley into two, and being itself
most lovely with its farmstead, and dropped thorns, and
coppice and grey rocks: while, behind and above it, the vale
head rises into grandeur, with its torrents leaping down,
and its pathway winding up, indicating the pass into
Mardale. The stranger is not going that way, however. He
turns over a gentler pass to the left, which leads him, on
the slope of Wansfell, away from Troutbeck. As he bids
farewell to the Tongue, he sees the summit of Kirkstone
before him. He is passing over the somewhat boggy upland
where the Stock takes its rise, to flow down to and through
Ambleside, after having taken the leap called Stockghyll
Force. The tourist may see that in the evening, if there is
time:- he is going the other way now.
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Kirkstone Pass
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His road meets the one from Ambleside at a small
public-house, which the Ordnance Surveyors have declared the
highest inhabited house in England: and thus it is labelled
by a board over the porch. In clear weather, the sea is seen
hence, and the thread of smoke from its steamers. The head
of Windermere lies like a pond below: the little Blelham
tarn, near Wray Castle, glitters behind; and range beyond
range of hills recedes to the horizon. Near at hand, all is
very wild. The Ambleside road winds up steeply between grey
rocks and moorland pasture, and dashing streams; and the
Kirkstone mountain has probably mists driving about its
head. There is something wilder to come, however,- the noted
Kirkstone Pass,- the great pass of the district. The descent
begins about a quarter of a mile beyond the house. Down
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gazetteer links
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-- Kirkstone Pass Inn
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-- Kirkstone to Patterdale
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-- Windermere to Kirkstone Pass
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-- "Tongue, The" -- Tongue, The
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