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

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Page 258:-
that had been made by the roots of some old ashes; to get across the dry and broad bed of rocks to a rich bed of sandy soil, in order to support their aged parents, for ever doomed to dwell on the steep side of a barren and rugged cliff.
Returning back a little way from Ginglepot, in order to find a passage out of this dreary glen, we proceeded about an hundred and twenty yards higher, when we came to Weathercoat cave, or cove [1], the most surprising natural curiosity of the kind in the island of Great Britain. It is a stupendous subterranean cataract, in a huge cave, the top of which is on the same level with the adjoining lands. On our approach to its brink, our ears and eyes were equally astonished with the sublime and terrible. The margin was surrounded with trees and shrubs, the foliage of which was of various shapes and colours, which had an excellent effect both in guarding and ornamenting the steep and rugged precipices on every side.- Where the eye could penetrate through the leaves and branches, there was room for the imagination to conceive this cavern more dreadful and horrible, if possible, than it was in reality. This cave is of a lozenge form, and divided into two by a rugged and grotesque arch of limestone rock: the whole length, from south to north, is about sixty yards, and the breadth about half its length. At the south end is the entrance down into the little cave; on the right of which is a subterranean passage under the rocks, and a petrifying well. A stranger cannot but take notice of a natural seat and table in a corner of this grotesque room, well suited for a poet or philosopher: here he may be secluded from the bustle of the world, though not from noise; the uniform roaring, however, of the cascade, will exclude from the ear every other sound, and his
[1] The word cave is pronounced by the country people cove, or coave. This hint may be of service to a stranger in his enquiries.- This cave is not above 100 yards from the turnpike-road from Lancaster to Richmond: it is on the left hand side of the twenty-second milestone from Lancaster, from whence the cascade may be distinctly heard. The delicate and timid may neither be afraid of their persons or clothes, if they have no mind to descend: they may stand safe on the margin of either Hurtlepot, Ginglepot, or Weathercoat-cave. They will there see enough to astonish them, and imagination will supply the rest.
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gazetteer links
button -- "Hurtlepot" -- Hurtle Pot
button -- "Ginglepot" -- Jingle Pot
button -- "Weathercoat Cave" -- Weathercoate Cave

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