button to main menu   West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821

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Page 165:-
right, and opposite to it, the first sheet of water is lost among the rocks and wood, in a beautiful manner. Bleakhow-crag, a ruinous rock, and over it, Castle-crag, a staring shattered rock, have a formidable appearance; and above all is seen Kidstow-pike, on whose summit the clouds weep into a crater of rock that is never empty. On the eastern side, a front of prominent rock bulges out into a solemn naked mass, and a waving cataract descends the furrowed side of a soft green hill. The contrast is fine - At Bleakhow-crag there is a pleasing back view.
Above the chapel, all is hopeless waste and desolation. The little vale contracts into a glen, strewed with the precipitated ruins of mouldering mountains, and the destruction of perpetual water-falls.
Haweswater to Kendal
Kendal is fourteen miles from the chapel, and whoever chooses an Alpine ride, may proceed to it up this vale. From the chapel to the top of the mountains is three miles, and the descent into Long-Sleddale is as much more. In approaching the mountain, Harter-fell scowls forward in all the terrific grandeur of hanging rock. As you advance, a yawning chasm appears to divide it upwards from the base, and within it is heard the hoarse noise of ingulphed waters. The tumult of cataracts and water-falls on all sides,
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gazetteer links
button -- Harter Fell
button -- Hawes Water
button -- "Kidstow Pike" -- Kidsty Pike
button -- (track, Gatescarth to Mardale)

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