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The next grand view is had in the boat, and from the centre of
the lake, opposite to Coniston-hall. Looking towards the
mountains, the lake spreads itself into a noble expanse of
transparent water, and burst into a bay on each side, bordered
with verdant meadows, and inclosed with a variety of grounds,
rising in an exceedingly bold manner. The objects are beautifully
diversified amongst themselves, and contrasted by the finest
exhibition of rural elegance (cultivation, and pasturage, waving
woods, and sloping inclosures, adorned by nature, and improved by
art) under the bold sides of stupendous mountains, whose airy
summits the elevated eye cannot now reach, and which almost deny
access to human kind.
Following the line of shore from Coniston-hall, to the upper end
of the lake, the village of Coniston is in full view, and
consists of seats, groups of houses, farms, and cots, scattered
in a picturesque manner over the cultivated slope. Some are
snow-white, others gray; some stand forth on bold eminences at
the head of green inclosures; backed with steep woods; others are
pitched on sweet declivities, and seem hanging in the
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