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STY HEAD PASS, FROM WASTDALE TO BORROWDALE.
We have noticed the eastern prong of the fork into which
Glaramara divides the head of Borrowdale. We now have to
notice the western,- the Sty Head Pass. The Stake Pass
descends, as we saw, upon Stonethwaite. The Sty Head Pass
descends upon Seathwaite,- each of these farms being the
last dwelling at the head of the dale.
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Antiquarians tell us that Borrowdale was anciently called
Boredale, "having its name probably from the wild boars
which used, in former times, to haunt the woody part of
Wastdale Forest; the hill above it being called Sty Head,
where the swine were wont to feed in the summer, and fall
down in autumn into this dale, where they fed upon nuts and
acorns. Here are large flocks of sheep; and anciently were
mines of lead and copper. Here also, in a very high and
perpendicular rock called Eagle Crag, is every year an eyrie
or nest of eagles." So says the old history. [1] But the
traveller will find no swine near Sty Head now, summer or
winter. No creature comes to drink at the tarn,- the little
clear rippling lake, where the mountaineer throws himself
down to rest on the bank, when heated by the ascent from the
vales. He has found
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