button to main menu  Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, 1787

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Page 65:-
"The garrison at last capitulated; and the entertainment of the water being finished, (towards the evening,) the company moved to Keswick; to which place, from the water's edge, a range of lamps was fixed, very happily disposed, and a number of fireworks displayed off. An Assembly-room, (which was built for the purpose,) next received the Ladies and Gentlemen, and a dance concluded the annual festivity. A chain of amusements, which we may venture to assert no other place can possibly furnish, and which wants only to be more universally known, to render it a place of more general resort than any in the kingdom."
By those whom Nature's works alone can charm, this sport will at all times be viewed with rapture and astonishment. But no breast, however insusceptible of pleasure, can be indifferent to that display of every beauty which decks the romantic vale of Keswick on a Regatta-day: and, as he justly says: "when the attack begins" all nature seems in an uproar; for on every side of you the rebellowings of the mountains are heard, stand where you will in the valley. Had the poet who described the battle of the Gods seen a Regatta-day at Keswick, it would have much enriched his muse for that subject.
It is discovered that the report of a gun is re-echoed eight or nine times: hence the reader may very well imagine the terrible noise among the surrounding rocks, and the different sounds caused by that of firing a nine pounder, a musquet, and a four pounder. There are likewise small brass guns on swivels, sent hither by his Grace the Duke of Portland, placed on the barges, for the entertainment and amusement of travellers.
  echoes
  waterfalls

At the Regatta in the year 1784, I observed a most striking and beautiful effort from the union of the reports of the guns with the music of the French horns. Upon the retreat of the fleet, and the firing of the first feu-de-joye, the music begun and continued till the renewal of the attack: these pleasing sounds, which when softened and reverberated by innumerable cliffs exhibit an almost supernatural tide of harmony, were at times disturbed by the explosions of the guns. First, the loud fierce report of the cannon totally drowned the music; then all was silent for a few seconds, and the music again was heard. Scarce could the ear comprehend a note when the gun was re-echoed from the surrounding precipices like a peal of thunder: when this ceased, the horns again were heard, but almost instantly the uproar arose among other and more distant cliffs; which was repeated many times from every discharge.
Least a native may be suspected of partiality, give me leave to insert Mr Hutchinson's account of the echoes at Ulswater, wherein a striking similitude may be seen. (He says,) "Whilst we sat to regale, the barge put off from shore to a station where the finest echoes were to be obtained from the surrounding mountains. The vessel was provided with six brass cannon mounted on swivels: on discharging one of these pieces, the report was echoed from the opposite rocks, where, by reverberation, it seemed to roll from cliff to cliff, and return through every cave and valley, till the decreasing tumult died away upon the ear.
"The instant it ceased, the sound of every distant water-fall was heard; but for an instant only: for the momentary stillness was interrupted by the returning echo on the hills behind; where the report was repeated like a peal of thunder bursting over our heads, continuing for several seconds, flying from haunt to haunt, till once more the sound gradually declined. Again the voice of water-falls possessed the interval, till, to the right, the more distant thunder arose on some other mountains, and seemed to take its way up every winding dale and creek; sometimes behind, on this side, or on that, in wondrous speed running its dreadful course: when the echo reached the mountains within the line and channel of the breeze, it was heard at once on the right and left at the extremities of the Lake. In this manner was the report of every discharge re-echoed seven times distinctly."
POEM
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