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

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Page 29:-
[perspect]ive. To the north of Whitbarrow-scar, a huge arched and bended cliff, of an immense height, shows its stern beaten front [1]. The intermediate space is a mixture of rocks, and woods, and cultivated patches, that form a romantic view [2]. At the side of the
[1] A little to the left of Whitbarrow is Castlehead, which is now in the possession of the executor of John Wilkinson, Esq. The house is seen to advantage as you cross the sands, and greatly enlivens the part of the coast where it is situated.
[2] The above description of this curious and pleasing ride is, as far as it goes, just, but not characteristic. What most attracts the notice of the traveller is not the objects of the surrounding country (though they are fine) but the sands themselves. For when he has got a few miles from the shore, the nature of the plain on which he treads cannot but suggest a series of ideas of a more sublime kind than those of rural elegance, and which will therefore gain a superior attention. The plain is then seemingly immense in extent, continued in a dead level, and uniform in appearance. As he pursues his often trackless way, he will recollect, that probably but a few hours before, the whole expanse was covered with some fathoms of water, and that in a few more it will as certainly be covered again. At the same time he may also perceive, on his left hand, the retreated ocean ready to obey the mysterious laws of its irresistable movement, without any visible barrier to stay it a moment where it is. These last considerations, though they may not be sufficient to alarm, must yet be able to rouse the mind to a state of more than ordinary attention; which, co-operating with the other singular ideas of the prospect, must affect it in a very sublime and unusual manner. This the bare appearance of the sands will do. But when the traveller reaches the side of the Eau, these affections will be greatly increased. He there drops down a gentle descent to the edge of a broad and seemingly impassable river, where the only remains he can perceive of the surrounding lands are the tops of distant mountains, and where a solitary being on horseback (like some ancient genius of the deep) is descried hovering on its brink, or encountering its stream with gentle steps, in order to conduct him through it. When fairly entered into the water, if a stranger to this scene, and he does not feel himself touched with some of the most pleasing emotions, I should consider him destitute of common sensibility. For, in the midst of apparently great danger, he will soon find that there is really none at all; and the complacency which must naturally result from this consideration, will be heightened to an unusual degree by observing, during his passage, the anxious and faithful instinct of his beast, and the friendly behaviour and aspect of his guide. All the fervors of grateful thankfulness will then be raised, and if, with the usual perquisite to his venerable conductor, he can forget to convey his blessing, who would not conclude him to want one essential requisite for properly enjoying the tour of the lakes?
Having crossed the river, the stranger traveller, (whom we will suppose at length freed from any petty anxiety) will now have more inclination to survey the objects around him. The several particulars peculiar to an arm of the sea (as fishermen, ships, sea-fowl, shells, weeds, &c.) will attract his notice and new-model his reflections. But if the sun shine forcibly, he will perhaps be most entertained with observing the little gay isles and promontories of land, that seem to hover in the air, or swim on a luminous vapour, that rises from the sand, and fluctuates beautifully on its surface.
In short, on a fine summer day, a ride across this aestuary (and that of Leven mentioned little further on) to a speculative stranger (or to any one who is habituated to consider the charms of nature abstractedly) will afford a variety of most entertaining ideas. Indeed, the objects here presented to the eye are several of them so like in kind to what will frequently occur in the tour of the lakes, some of them are so much more magnificent from extent, and others so truly peculiar, that it seems rather surprising that this journey should not often be considered by travellers from the south, as one of the first curiosities of the tour, in beauty as well as occurrence. And if the reader of this note be of a philosophic turn, this question may here offer itself to him, and to which it is apprehended he may found a satisfactory answer on every evident principles, viz. 'Why a view so circumstanced as this, and, when taken from the shore at full sea, so very like a lake of greater apparent extent than any in the kingdom, should never be brought into comparison with the lakes to be visited afterwards, and generally fail to strike the mind with images of any peculiar beauty or grandeur?' X.
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gazetteer links
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button -- Lancaster Sands Road
button -- Whitbarrow Scar

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