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Page 54:-
chapel, is reached, the stranger must alight, and ascend it.
He is ascending Rydal Mount: and Wordsworth's house is at
the top of the hill,- within the modest gate on the left. If
the family should be absent, the traveller may possibly
obtain entrance, and stand on the mossgrown eminence, (like
a little Roman camp,) in front of the house, whence he may
view the whole valley of the Rothay to the utmost advantage.
Windermere in the distance is, as Wordsworth used to say, a
light thrown into the picture, in the winter season, and, in
summer, a beautiful feature, changing with every hue of the
sky. The whole garden is a true poet's garden; its green
hollows, its straight terraces, bordered with beds of
periwinkle, and tall foxgloves, purple and white,- (the
white being the poet's favourite); and then the summer
house,- (now, however, damp and dreary, with the fircones
that line it dropping out of their places); and then the
opening of the door, which discloses the other angle of the
prospect,- Rydal Pass, with the lake lying below. Every
resident in the neighbourhood thinks the situation of his
own house the best: but most agree that Wordsworth's comes
next. We should say that Wordsworth's came next to Mr.
Sheldon's at Miller Brow, but for the great disadvantage of
the long and steep ascent to it. That ascent is a serious
last stage of a walk on a hot summer day; but the privileges
of the spot, when once reached, are almost incomparable.
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