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Page 81:-
serviceable to put a lamb in on each side in a cold morning
in the spring, when they are almost starved, and gets little
milk. But to be short, as our priest says in his sermon, I
had not time to think of all this when I saw it, for my feet
run with me thro' amongst the people and over people so
fast, I frightened them; they thought the devil was in me:
they might have thought right if they thought the devil had
driven me forward, for if they keep such bustles on purpose
to frighten people, there is no matter how many of them are
troden to death. But I'll promise thee I never stopt till I
got to a sea-horse that came to England, and I was sick
again before I got home: I could neither eat nor drink all
the time, and if thou saw me now thou could not know me from
a frog that had been hung up by the heels in sunshine
and dried to death, for I am as thin as lantern lights.
I think thou must not expect to see me this month; this is
my third day at home, and I have a stomach fit to eat the
horse from behind the saddle; I get five meals a day, and a
snack when I go to bed. I hope I shall get strong again
before it be long, and then I'll come and see the. This is
only like the clock when it gives warning to strike twelve,
to what I will tell thee when I come.
My kind love to thee, and may good luck keep thee from all
that's bad, and do not be desirous of going abroad, for fear
the devil get thee.
I must confess I was never more puzzled than in decyphering
this specimen of my own country langauge. I myself could
comprehend with the utmost facility every idea, but when I
came to explain it, soon found the very great difference
there is between understanding and defining.
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Sir John Banks
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Great as the simplicity of the latter may appear, it does
not exaggerate the ignorance of the natives of this dale
forty years ago; yet with all these disadvantages, they
possessed many excellencies. The laws of hospitality and
honesty were no where more strictly observed: the traveller
who accidentally visited this almost-unfrequented spot was
sure of an hearty welcome to their plain but substantial
fare, and weakness or ignorance never endangered his
property. Let me add, that even from this rude vale have
sprung more than one genius, who would have done honour to
the most polished and refined cities: as instances, I shall
only name Sir John Banks, who rose to the highest dignities
in the State, whose worth was greater than his
titles; and Mr John Banks his descendant, who inherits the
virtues of his ancestor, and is perfectly well known in the
learned world as a teacher of philosophy. This Sir John
Banks was Attorney-General to King Charles the I. and Lord
Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas; he attended the
King to Oxford, and was made one of the privy council; he
died there, and was buried in the Cathedral Church, A.D.
1644.
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Lodore Falls
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The cliffs about Low-Door are well clad with trees,
which in Spring and Autumn are gilded by the morning's rays
in every variety of green, yellow, and brown. Behind the
trees the naked grey rock peeps forth in hoary majesty, and
by a thousand gradations and breaks of light and shade,
contrasts, in cooler tints, the more ardent glow upon the
leaves. Down this stupendous rocks pours the *
cataract of Low-Door, dashed from cliff to cliff
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in
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* The water which falls down this Cataract issues
from a lake in a pleasant and fruitful valley which lyes on
the mountain, and is called Wattendleth: here corn and other
crops are reaped in forward seasons, and is about one mile
from Low-Door; the road to it lyes by Ashness.
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gazetteer links
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-- "Borrowdale" -- (Borrowdale (CL13inc)2)
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-- "Cataract of Low Door" -- Lodore Falls
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