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

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Page 210:-
[sea]son for about six weeks; it grows fat on the mountains, and nearly resembles venison. Excellent pike, and perch, here called bass; trout is now out of season; partridge in great plenty.
Oct. 8. I left Keswick, and took the Ambleside road, in a gloomy morning: about two miles (rather a mile) from the town, mounted an eminence called Castle-rigg, and the sun breaking out discovered the most enchanting view I have yet seen of the whole valley behind me, the two lakes, the river, the mountains, all in their glory; so that I had almost a mind to have gone back again. The road in some few parts is not completed, yet good country road, through sound but narrow and stony ones, very safe in broad day light. This is the case about Causeway foot and among Naddle-fells, to Langthwaite. The vale you go in has little breadth; the mountains are vast and rocky, the fields little and poor, and the inhabitants are now making hay, and see not the sun by two hours in the day so long as at Keswick. Came to the foot of Helvellyn, along which runs an excellent road, looking down from a little height on Leathes-water, (called also Thirlmere, or Wythburn-water) and soon descending on its margin. The lake looks black from its depth, and from the gloom of the vast crags that scowl over it, though really clear as glass: it is narrow, and about three miles long, resembling a river in its course; little shining torrents hurrying down the rocks to join it, but not a bush to overshadow them or cover their march; all is rock and loose stones up to the very brow, which lies so near your way that not above half the height of Helvellyn can be seen.
Next I passed by the little chapel of Wythburn, out of which the Sunday congregation were then issuing: soon after a beck near Dunmail-raise, where I entered Westmorland a second time: and now began to see Helm-crag, distinguished from its rugged neighbours, not so much by its height as by
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gazetteer links
button -- "Causeway Foot" -- Causeway Foot
button -- "Lake of Keswick" -- Derwent Water
button -- Dunmail Raise
button -- Helm Crag
button -- Helvellyn
button -- "Langthwaite" -- Legburthwaite
button -- "Naddle Fells" -- Naddle Fells
button -- Ambleside to Keswick
button -- station, Castlerigg
button -- "Leathes Water" -- Thirlmere
button -- "Vale of Derwent Water" -- Vale of Keswick
button -- "Westmorland" -- Westmorland
button -- Wythburn Chapel

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