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The road now to be followed, passes through Coniston and
Torver, and then diverges from the lake, overlooking a
region in which the hills sink into heathery undulations,
which again subside into a wide alluvion, which stretches to
the estuary. When it is high water, the scene is fine: but
the vast reaches of sand at low water are dreary. The coast
railway is seen crossing the estuary,- its cobweb tracery
showing well against the sand or the water. Near at hand
Broughton Tower rises from the woods above the little town:
but there is nothing else to detain the eye. Tourists who
desire to ascend Blackcombe, should do it from hence,- the
summit being only six miles from Broughton; and guides are
here to be procured. Wordsworth says of this mountain that
"its base covers a much greater extent of ground than any
other mountain in those parts; and, from its situation, the
summit commands a more extensive view than any other point
in Britain." One would think that this testimony, and Col.
Mudge's information that, when residing on Blackcombe for
surveying purposes, he more than once saw Ireland before
sunrise, would bring strangers to try their luck in seeing
Scotland, Staffordshire, and Ireland, from the same point:
but the mountain lies out of the ordinary track of tourists,
and very few visit it.
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