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

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Page 246:-
high mountains, some of them the loftiest of any in England - Whernside to the south-east, and Gragareth to the north. There was no descent from this vale, except the deep chasm where we saw the cascade. It seemed opened in some distant age, either by the gradual effect of the washing of the river, or some violent and extraordinary flood bursting open the rugged barrier that pent it up. The vale above has all the appearance of having been once a lake, from the flatness of its surface, and its rich soil, like a sediment subsided on the bottom of a stagnant water. We were informed, that the subterranean cascade beneath, just now mentioned, has but lately made its appearance, and is every day more and more enlarging. We were quite secluded from the world, not an habitation for a man in view, but a lonely shepherd's house, with a little wood, and a few inclosures near it, called Breadagarth: it is on the north side of a high mountain, seldom visited by man, and never by the sun for near half a year. The shepherd, its solitary inhabitant, with longing eyes looks for returning verdure, when the sun begins to throw his benign rays on the solitary abode. No monk or anchoret could desire a more retired situation for his cell, to moralise on the vanity of the world, or disappointed lover to bewail the inconstancy of his nymph. The soil seemed the deepest and richest, in some parts of this vale, of any we had ever observed, and no doubt is capable of great improvement. We could not but lament, that instead of peopling the wilds and deserts of North America, our fellow-subjects had not peopled the fertile wastes of the north of England. We have since indeed been informed, that a plan is in agitation for having them inclosed, when no doubt but it will support some scores of additional families.- While we were musing on the many bad effects of peopling distant countries, and neglecting our own, we arrived at the object of this excursion, Yordas-cave: it is almost at the top of the vale, on the north-west side of it, under the high mountain Gragareth. We discovered it by some sheep-folds, at the mouth of a rugged gill or glen, in which we safely pent up our horses. In rainy seasons, we were told, a copious stream is poured down this gill, and a cascade falls over the very entrance into the cave, so as to pre-
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gazetteer links
button -- "Breadagrth" -- Braida Garth
button -- "Gragareth" -- Gragareth
button -- "Kingsdale" -- Kingsdale
button -- "Whernside" -- Whernside
button -- "Yordas Cave" -- Yordas Cave

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