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start of addendum |
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Page 212:-
for within a mile, that lake is visible even from the road; as to
going up the crag, one might as well go up Skiddaw.
I now reached Ambleside, sixteen miles from Keswick, meaning to
lie there; but on looking into the best bed-chamber, dark and
damp as a cellar, grew delicate, gave up Windermere in despair,
and resolved I would go on to Kendal directly, fourteen miles
further [1]. The road in general fine turnpike, but some parts
(about three miles in all) not made, yet without danger.
For this determination I was unexpectedly well rewarded; for the
afternoon was fine, and the road for the space of full five
miles, ran along the side of Windermere, with delicious views
across it, and almost from one end to the other. It is ten miles
in length, and at most a mile over, resembling the course of some
vast and magnificent river; but no flat marshy grounds, no osier
beds, or patched of scrubby plantations on
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[1]
By not staying a little at Ambleside, Mr. Gray lost the sight of
two magnificent cascades: the one not half a mile behind the inn,
the other down Rydal-crag, where Sir Michael le Fleming is now
making a pathway to the top of it. These, when I saw them, were
in full torrent; whereas Lowdore water-fall, which I visited in
the evening of the very same day, was almost without a stream.
Hence I conclude that this distinguished feature in the vale of
Keswick, is like most of the northern rivers, only in high beauty
during bad weather. But his greatest loss was in not seeing a
small water-fall, visible only through the window of a ruined
summer-house in Sir Michael's orchard. Here nature has performed
everything in little, that she usually executes on her larger
scale; and on that account, like the miniature painter, seems to
have finished every part of it in a studied manner; not a little
fragment of the rock thrown into the bason, not a single stem of
brushwood that starts from its craggy sides, but has its
picturesque meaning; and the little central stream dashing down a
cleft of the darkest coloured stone, produces an effect of light
and shadow beautiful beyond description. This little theatrical
scene might be painted as large as the original on a canvass not
bigger than those usually dropped in the opera house.
[The inn at Ambleside has been greatly improved since Mr. Gray's
time, and now as commodious as any in the country.]
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gazetteer links
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-- Ambleside
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-- High Fall
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-- (inn, Ambleside)
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-- Kendal
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-- "Lowdore Waterfall" -- Lodore Falls
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-- Low Fall (?)
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-- Ambleside to Keswick
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-- Windermere to Ambleside
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-- Rydal Head
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-- Stockghyll Force
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-- Windermere
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-- Windermere
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Lakes Guides menu.
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