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page 35
[inter]est than they are likely to excite when looked at
from an open country with ordinary undulations: and it must
be obvious, that it is the bays only of large lakes
that can present such contrasts of light and shadow as those
of smaller dimensions display from every quarter. A deep
contracted valley, with diffused waters, such a valley and
plains level and wide as those of Chaldea, are the two
extremes in which the beauty of the heavens and their
connexion with the earth are most sensibly felt. Nor do the
advantages I have been speaking of imply here an exclusion
of the aerial effects of distance. These are insured by the
height of the mountains, and are found, even in the
narrowest vales, where they lengthen in perspective, or act
(if the expression may be used) as telescopes for the open
country.
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night scene
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The subject would bear to be enlarged upon: but I will
conclude this section with a night-scene suggested by the
Vale of Keswick. The Fragment is well known; but it
gratifies me to insert it, as the Writer was one of the
first who led the way to a worthy admiration of this
country.
"Now sunk the sun, now twilight sunk, and night
Rode in her zenith; not a passing breeze
Sigh'd to the grove, which in the midnight air
Stood motionless, and in the peaceful floods
Inverted hung: for now the billows slept
Along the shore, nor heav'd the deep; but spread
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gazetteer links
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-- "Vale of Keswick" -- Vale of Keswick
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-- (weather, Cumbria)
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