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[moun]tains; and saw green cultivated vales over the tops of
lofty rocks, and other mountains over these vales, in many
ridges: whilst innumerable narrow glens were traced in all their
windings, and seen uniting behind the hills with others that also
sloped upwards from the lake.
The air on this summit was boisterous, intensely cold, and
difficult to be inspired, though below, the day was warm and
serene. It was dreadful to look down from nearly the brink of the
point on which we stood, upon the lake of Bassenthwaite, and over
a sharp and separated ridge of rocks, that from below appeared of
tremendous height, but now seemed not to reach half way up
Skiddaw; it was almost as if
... the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of light ...
Under the lee of an heaped up pile of slates, formed by the
customary contribution of one from every visitor, we found an old
man sheltered, whom we took to be a shepherd, but afterwards
learned was a farmer, and as people in this neighbourhood say, a
statesman, that is, had land of his own. He was a native, and
still an inhabitant of an adjoining vale; but so laborious is the
enterprize reckoned, that, though he had passed his life within
view of the mountain, this was his first ascent. He descended
with us for part of our way, then wound off towards his own
valley, stalking amidst the wild scenery, his large figure
wrapped in a dark cloak, and his steps occasionally assisted by a
long iron-pronged pike, with which he had pointed out distant
objects.- In the descent, it was interesting to observe each
mountain below gradually resuming its dignity; the two lakes
expanding into spacious surfaces; the many little vallies that
sloped upwards from their margins, recovering their variegated
tints of cultivation; the cattle again appearing in the meadows;
and the woody promontories changing from smooth patches of shade
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