button to main menu   West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821

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Page 242:-
built by the Devil one night in windy weather; he had but one apron full of stones for the purpose, and unfortunately his apron-string breaking as he flew with them over Casterton-fell, he lost many of them out, or the bridge would have been much higher.
From the top of the bridge the prospect down the river is delightful: the sides of the deep channel covered with trees, are nearly parallel for half a mile, and the water one continued surface, save here and there where a pointed rock lift up its head above the stream. We walked down by the side of the river about a mile, and as we proceeded were continually presented with new prospects; while the soft murmurs of the river afforded a variety of different notes. The vale of Lonsdale dilating by degrees, presented us in succession with the different seats and villages that adorn it: Whittington and Arkholme to the west; Tunstal, Melling, Hornby and its castle, to the south; and Leck to the east. The brown and blue mountains of Burnmore and Lyth-fell terminated the view, which we could have wished had extended still farther to the south. While we were selecting various objects for our amusement, we suddenly and insensibly arrived at Overborough, the seat of Thomas Fenwick, Esq. a modern house and one of the largest and most elegant in the county of Lancaster: being situated on a rising ground, though near the river Lune, its different fronts command all the delightful prospects which the vale affords. During our excursion through the gardens and pleasure grounds adjoining, we were presented with views of a different sort to any we had hitherto enjoyed: sometimes we were embowered with woods and lofty trees - nothing of the adjacent country to be seen, save here and there the blue peak of Ingleborough, or some neighbouring mountain; till we crossed a broad vista, which suddenly exhibited a new and unexpected scene of the winding vale beneath. A stranger, in going from the hall to the gardens, must be struck with a surprise bordering on terror, on viewing the profound and gloomy glen by the side of his way. The trees which guard this steep bank prevent the eye from seeing the river Leck, which flows through a chasm
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gazetteer links
button -- (Devil's Bridge, Kirby Lonsdale)
button -- Hornby
button -- Leck
button -- (Leck, River)
button -- "Vale of Lonsdale" -- Lune Valley (?)
button -- Lune, River
button -- "Overborough" -- Over Burrow

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