button to main menu  Wordsworth's Guide 1810, edn 1835
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page 113
[favour]able order; but after some progress had been made in the work it was abandoned from a conviction, that, if well executed, it would lessen the pleasure of the Traveller by anticipation, and, if the contrary, it would mislead him. The Reader may not, however, be displeased with the following extract from a letter to a Friend, giving an account of a visit to a summit of one of the highest of these mountains; of which I am reminded by the observations of Mr. West, and by reviewing what has been said of this district in comparison with the Alps.
Having left Rosthwaite in Borrowdale, on a bright morning in the first week of October, we ascended from Seathwaite to the top of the ridge, called Ash-course, and thence beheld three distinct views; on one side, the continuous Vale of Borrowdale, Keswick, and Bassenthwaite, - with Skiddaw, Helvellyn, Saddle-back, and numerous other mountains, - and, in the distance, the Solway Frith and the Mountains of Scotland; - on the other side, and below us, the Langdale Pikes - their own vale below them; - Windermere, - and, far beyond Windermere, Ingleborough in Yorkshire. But how shall I speak of the deliciousness of the third prospect! At this time, that was most favoured by sunshine and shade. The green Vale of Esk - deep and green, with its glittering serpent stream, lay below us; and, on we looked to the Mountains near the Sea, - Black Comb pre-eminent, - and, still
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