button to main menu  Gents Mag 1747 p.522

button introduction
button list, 2nd qtr 18th century
button map
Gentleman's Magazine 1747 p.522

  Caldbeck Fells
Journey to Caldbeck Fells

... ...
A Journey to CAUDEBEC FELLS, with a Map and Description of the same.
ONE curiosity is apt to excite another; after visiting Cross-fells, † my inclinations led me to examine those of Caudebeck, that lateral detachment of the British Alps, which overspreads great part of Cumberland; distinguished by insuperable precipices, and tow'ring peaks, and exhibiting landskapes of a quite different and more romantic air than any part of the general ridge, and of nearer affinity to the Switzerland Alps. My intention in this journey was to visit the Wadd-mines, the peculiar product of these mountains, and no where else discovered on the globe; but as they are kept close shut up, and the weather was extremely unfavourable, I deferred that examination to a more proper time, and contented myself with the varieties in the neighbourhood of Mose-dale; here I found villages in the narrow bottoms, that feel no more benefit from the solar rays for two months about the winter solstice, than the old Cimmerians, or the Laplanders who inhabit about the North Cape of Norway.
Swinsted on Cauda is a strong instance that the property of the Artic circle is not confined to those unhappy regions which lie within 23 degrees of the pole, especially with regard to the solar light.
These mountains differ not only in figure, but are very dissimilar in property to the main body, being dry, smooth, and more agreeably verdant, where precipices occur not. The rocks upon which they are built, being of a fissile absorbent nature, serving to imbibe the descending rains, which are thrown off from the more compact strata of the general ridge, and take broken and uneven courses, through the loose and spongy texture of their outward covering, forming sometimes morasses, but more frequently rotten bogs, and sinuous mires of difficult passage
† Of which see the description, p.384-5.
No
gazetteer links
button -- (black lead mine, Seathwaite)
button -- "Caudebeck Fells" -- Caldbeck Fells
button -- "Swinstead" -- Swineside
button next page

button to main menu Lakes Guides menu.