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Page 308:-
had never been seen by him in the clearest weather. Bounding the
low country to the north, the wide Solway Frith, with its
indented shores, looked like a grey horizon; and the double range
of Scottish mountains, seen dimly through the mist beyond, like
lines of dark clouds above it. The Solway appeared surprisingly
near us, though at fifty miles distance; and the guide said,
that, on a bright day, its shipping could plainly be discerned.-
Nearly in the north, the heights seemed to soften into plains,
for no object was there visible through the obscurity that had
begun to draw over the further distance; but towards the east
they appeared to swell again; and what we were told were the
Chevot (sic) hills, dawned feebly beyond Northumberland. We now
spanned the narrowest part of England, looking from the Irish
Channel on one side, to the German Ocean on the other; which
latter was however, so far off as to be discernable only like a
mist.- Nearer than the County of Durham, stretched the ridge of
Cross-fell, and an indistinct multitude of Westmorland and
Yorkshire highlands, whose lines disappeared behind Saddleback,
now evidently pre-eminent over Skiddaw, so much so as too exclude
many a height beyond it.- Passing this mountain in our course to
the south, we saw, immediately below, the fells round
Derwent-water, the lake itself remaining still concealed in their
deep rocky bosom. Southward and westward, the whole prospect was
'a turbulent chaos of dark mountains:' all individual dignity was
now lost in the immensity of the whole, and every variety of
character was overpowered by that of astonishing and gloomy
grandeur.- Over the fells of Borrowdale, and far to the south,
the northern end of Windermere appeared, like a wreath of grey
smoke that spreads along a mountain's side. More southward still,
and beyond all the fells of the lakes, Lancaster Sands extended
to the faintly-seen waters of the sea. Then to the west, Duddon
Sands gleamed in a long line among the fells of High Furness.-
Immediately under the eye, lay Bassenthwaite, surrounded by many
ranges of mountains invisible from below. We overlooked all these
dark moun-
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