button to main menu   Ford's Description of the Lakes, 1839/1843

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Page 65:-
every thing resuming their original shapes and just proportions, which they lose when viewed from such an unusual elevation. The returning symptoms of life, the hum of bees, the song of birds, and the voice of busy people, restore tone to the spirits depressed by over much excitement.

  Saddleback
BLENCATHRA OR SADDLEBACK.
In order to reach the top of this mountain, it is best to go along the road towards Penrith as far as Scales, a hamlet six miles from Keswick; here a bye-road keeps close under the fell, which must be pursued till a shepherd's green path can be traced, winding up the hill-side. The first ridge this path reaches, gives a glimpse down into the vale, watered by the Glenderamaken; thence to the summit it is easy. From Linthwaite Pike, the highest point, the prospect is open to the north, east, and south. At the base of an enormous perpendicular crag, called Tarn Crag, depending from the top, is Scales Tarn, a beautiful circular piece of transparent water, with a well defined shore, covering an area of three acres and a half, and being eighteen feet deep. Here you are engulphed in a basin of steeps, having Tarn Crag on the north, the rocks falling from Sharp Edge on the east, and on the west the soft turf on which the descent has been made. From the summit of the mountain you may descend either directly upon Threlkeld, or by Lile Fell, Priestman, and Knott Crags, to the Glenderaterra, the stream
gazetteer links
button -- "Linthwaite Pike" -- Hallsfell Top
button -- "Blencathra" -- Saddleback
button -- "Scales Tarn" -- Scales Tarn
button -- "Skiddaw" -- Skiddaw
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