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[re]puted the finest in Westmorland. He may leave his car
where the road to High Close ascends to the left, and walk
to the farm-house at the top. As there are probably lodgers,
he had better not present himself at the garden door, but go
on to the farmyard gate, pass through the yard to the field,
and walk along the brow till he reaches the grey stone
bench. There he is! overlooking "the finest view in
Westmorland." To the extreme right, Bowfell closes in the
Langdale valley, the head of which is ennobled by the
swelling masses of the Pikes. A dark cleft in the nearer one
is the place where the celebrated Dungeon Ghyll Force is
plunging and foaming, beyond the reach of eye and ear. He
can gather from this station, something of the character of
Langdale. It has levels, here expanding, there contracting;
and the stream winds among them from end to end. There is no
lake: and the mountains send out spurs, alternating or
meeting, so as to make the levels sometimes circular and
sometimes winding. The dwellings are on the rising grounds
which skirt the levels; and this, together with the paving
of the road below, shows that the valley is subject to
floods. The houses, of grey-stone, each on its knoll, with a
canopy of firs and sycamores above it, and ferns scattered
all around, and ewes and lambs nestling near it,- these
primitive farms are cheerful and pleasant objects to look
upon, whether from above or passing among them. Nearer at
hand are some vast quarries of blue slate. Below, among
plantations, are seen the roofs of the Elterwater Powder
Mills; whence the road winds through the village of Langdale
Chapel, to the margin
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