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Page 161:-
Hail to thy beams, O Sun!- for this display,
What, glorious orb, can I repay?
The thanks of an unprostituted muse [1].
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station, Watermillock
cannon
echoes
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The navigators of this lake find much amusement by discharging
guns, or small cannon, at certain stations. The effect is indeed
truly curious, for the report is reverberated from rock to rock,
promontory, cavern, and hill, with every variety of sound; now
dying away upon the ear, and again returning like peals of
thunder, and thus re-echoed seven times distinctly. [2]- Opposite
to Watermillock is one of these stations.
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[1]
Ode to the Sun, page 18. The whole of this ode is inserted in the
Addenda, Article IV.
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[2]
This effect is thus described by Mr. Hutchinson:
'Whilst we sat to regale, the barge put off from shore to a
station where the finest echoes were to be obtained from the
surrounding mountains. This vessel was provided with six brass
cannon mounted on swivels;- on discharging one of these pieces,
the report was echoed from the opposite rocks, where by
reverberation it seemed to roll from cliff to cliff, and return
through every cave and valley, till the decreasing tumult
gradually died away upon the ear.
'The instant it had ceased, the sound of every distant water-fall
was heard, but for an instant only, for the momentary stillness
was interrupted by the returning echo on the hills behind; where
the report was repeated like a peal of thunder bursting over our
heads, continuing for several seconds, flying from haunt to
haunt, till once more the sound gradually declined;- again the
voice of the water-falls possessed the interval - till, to the
right, the more distant thunder arose upon some other mountain,
and seemed to take its way up every winding dell and creek,
sometimes behind, on this side, or on that, in wonderous speed
running its dreadful course; when the echo reached the mountains,
within the line and channel of the breeze, it was heard at once
on the right and left, at the extremities of the lake.- In this
manner was the report of every discharge re-echoed seven times
distinctly.'
Excursion to the Lakes, page 65.
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gazetteer links
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-- station, Watermillock
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-- "Ulls Water" -- Ullswater
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Lakes Guides menu.
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