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

button title page
button previous page button next page
Page 137:-
the eastern, and Scarf on the western side; a hundred mountain torrents form never-failing cataracts, that thunder and foam down the centre of the rock, and form the lake below. Here the rocky scenes and mountain landscapes are diversified and contrasted with all that aggrandizes the object in most sublime style, and constitutes a picture the most enchanting of any in these parts.
  tourists' woes
Mr. Gray's account of Barrowside, and his relation of Borrowdale, are hyperboles; the sport of fancy he was pleased to indulge himself in. A person that has crossed the Alps or Appenines, will meet here only miniatures of the huge rocks and precipices, the vast hills, and snow-topt mountains he saw there. And though he may observe much similarity in the style, there is none in the danger. Skiddaw, Helvellyn, and Cachidecam, are but dwarfs, when compared with mount Maudite, above the lake of Geneva, and the guardian mountains of the Rhone. If the roads in some places be narrow and difficult, they are at least safe. No villainous banditti haunt the mountains; innocent people live in the dells. Every cottager is narrative of all he knows; and mountain virtue and pastoral hospitality are found at every farm. This constitutes a pleasing difference betwixt travelling here and on the continent, where
button next page
gazetteer links
button -- Buttermere

button to main menu Lakes Guides menu.