button to main menu  Otley's Guide 1823 (5th edn 1834)

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Page 60:-
some parts affords little more footing than the ridge of a house, while its sides are far steeper than an ordinary roof. A less difficult way is to leave the tarn on the left hand, ascending Swirrel Edge, which is comparatively smooth; yet here is a little rocky scrambling to gain the top of the precipice; in the midst of which it will be well to halt, and take a view of Bassenthwaite Lake with its environs; which cannot be seem from the highest part of the mountain.
The ground towards the summit forms a kind of moss-clad plain, sloping gently to the west, and terminated on the east by a series of rocky precipices; and here the prospect on every side is grand beyond conception. Considerable portions of the lakes of Ullswater, Windermere, Coniston, and Esthwaite, with several of the mountain tarns, are to be seen. Red Tarn is seated so deeply below the eye, that, compared with its gigantic accompaniments, it would scarcely be estimated at more than half its actual dimensions. To the right and left of Red Tarn, the two narrow ridges called Striding Edge, and Swirrel Edge, are stretched out in the direction of the lamina of the slaty rock, of which this part of the mountain is composed; other parts being of chert or hornstone, resting upon porphyritic greenstone. Beyond Swirrel Edge lies Keppel-cove Tarn; and at the termination of the ridge rises the peak of Catsty-cam, modernized into Catchedecam, or Catchety-cam. Angle-tarn, and the frothy stream from
gazetteer links
button -- "Helvellyn Pile" -- Helvellyn
button -- station, Helvellyn
button -- Striding Edge
button -- "Swirrel Edge" -- Swirral Edge
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