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

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Page 241:-
that in winter the precipice was in some parts so glazed over with ice, from the water trickling down the surface, as to make it appear like a sheet of alabaster. From other parts of the impending rocks hung great and enormous icicles, which made it appear like a huge organ.
After the eye had traversed over a rich and fertile vale, variegated with woods and country houses, the prospect was terminated with a chain of lofty mountains, which run in a direction from south to north, parallel to the course of the river. The nearest were not above two or three miles off, and looked like the bold and surly sentries of a legion that seemed stationed behind them. On our return we were amused with prospects of a different nature. The church and town before us enlivened the scene: some mill wheels, between them and the river, added an agreeable variety with their motion. The vale beneath seemed to dilate and expand itself: the few parts of it which were visible, afforded sufficient ground to the imagination to conceive an assemblage of the most entertaining objects. Ingleborough, whose head was wrapt in a cloud, stood the farthest to the south in the rank of the mountains which faced us.
After breakfast, we walked by the side of the river to the bridge. The channel is deep, the stream rapid, among rocks, the banks on each side covered with trees of various foliage, which serve both as a defence and ornament. The bridge is the most lofty, strong, ancient, and striking to the eye of a stranger, of any I have yet seen. It is built of freestone, has three arches (two large and one smaller) the height from the surface of the water to the top of the centre arch, except in a flood, is about twelve yards. The arches are of the ribbed sort, which makes the appearance the more grotesque. There is no memorial of its foundation - a negative argument of its vast antiquity. We were indeed amused with one anecdote of its founder, which seemed to be a remnant of the ancient mythology of the north, and one instance, among many, of easily accounting for any thing that is marvellous. The country people have a tradition that it was
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gazetteer links
button -- (Devil's Bridge, Kirby Lonsdale)
button -- Ingleborough
button -- Lune, River

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