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good woman that kept it; so I lay there two nights, and went -
Oct. 13. To visit the Gordale-scar, which lay six miles from
Settle: but that way was directly over a fell, and as the weather
was not to be depended upon, I went round in a chaise the only
way one could get near it in a carriage, which made it full
thirteen miles, half of it such a road! but I got safe over it,
so there is an end, and came to Malham (pronounced Maum) a
village in the bosom of the mountains, seated in a wild and
dreary valley. From thence I was to walk a mile over very rough
ground, a torrent rattling along on the left hand; on the cliffs
above hung a few goats; one of them danced, and scratched an ear
with its right foot, in a place where I could not have stood
stock-still.
For all beneath the moon.
As I advanced, the crags seemed to close in, but discovered a
narrow entrance turning to the left between them; I followed my
guide a few paces, and the hills opening again into no large
space; and then all further way is barred by a stream that at the
height of about fifty feet, rushes from a hole in the rock, and
spreading in large sheets over its broken front, dashes from
steep to steep, and then rattles away in a torrent down the
valley; the rock on the left rises perpendicular, with stubbed
yew-trees and shrubs starting from its sides, to the height of at
least 300 feet; but these are not the thing; it is the rock to
the right, under which you stand to see the fall, that forms the
principal horror of the place. From its very base it begins to
slope forward over you in one black or solid mass without any
crevice in its surface, and overshadows half the area below its
dreadful canopy: when I stood at (I believe) four yards distant
from its foot, the drops which perpetually distil from its brow,
fell on my head; and in one part of its top, more exposed to the
weather, there are loose stones that hang in the air, and
threaten visibly some idle
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