button to main menu  Martineau's Complete Guide to the English Lakes, 1855

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Page 53:-
Just after entering the mail road, the driver will point out the cottage in which the poet and his sister lived, many long years ago, when Scott was their guest. Several good houses have sprung up near it, within a few years. The promontory which here causes the lake to contract to the little river (which is called the Rothay in all the intervals of the chain of lakes,) may be passed in three ways. The mail road runs round its point, and therefore keeps beside the water;- the Roman road, where the Wishing Gate used to be, crosses it by a rather steep ascent and descent;- and a shorter road still, steeper and boggy, cuts across its narrowest part, and comes out at the Rydal Quarries. Our traveller will take the mail road, probably. It will soon bring him to Rydal Lake; and he cannot but think the valley very lovely in the summer afternoon. On the opposite side of the lake is Loughrigg, with its terrace-walk distinctly visible half-way up. The islands are wooded; and on one of them is a heronry; and the grey bird, with its long flapping wings, is most likely visible, either in flight, or perched on a tree near its nest, or fishing in the shallows. Nab Scar, the blunt end of Fairfield, which overlooks the road and the lake, is very fine with its water-worn channels, its wood, and grey rocks. Nab Cottage, the humble white house by the road side, and on the margin of the lake, is the place where Hartley Coleridge lived and died. In the distance, Ivy Cottage peeps out of the green; and further on, Rydal Chapel rises out of the foliage on the verge of the park.
  Rydal Mount
When the turn to the left, which leads up to that
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button -- Allan Bank
button -- Heron Island
button -- Nab Cottage
button -- Nab Scar
button -- Ambleside to Keswick
button -- Wishing Gate
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