button to main menu   Ford's Description of the Lakes, 1839/1843

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Page 67:-
[wind]ing river are below, the village of Rosthwaite is in front at the junction of the vales of Stonethwaite and Seathwaite, while Eagle Crag and Glaramara tower above.
  Bowder Stone
The Bowder Stone next arrests the attention, standing on a high bank overlooking the river Derwent.

'Upon a semicirque of turf-clad ground,
The hidden nook discover'd to our view
A mass of rock, resembling, as it lay
Right at the foot of that moist precipice,
A stranded ship, with keel upturn'd, that rests
Fearless of winds and waves.'
This is an immense fragment of rock, which may possibly at some very distant period have fallen from the mountains near, and have ever since remained in its present position. Its dimensions are as follows:- length, sixty-two feet; height, thirty-six feet; circumference, eighty-nine feet; mass, twenty-three thousand and ninety cubic feet; and estimated weight, one thousand nine hundred and seventy-one tons. The appearance of it is not improved by the ladder affixed to it to enable people to see from its top, what can be much better viewed from Castle Crag. A slate bench near it, present a pleasing view into Borrowdale. On the right are Randerson's Band Rocks; beneath meanders the Derwent, enriching with welcome fertility, the fields and meadows through which are scattered the dwellings of Borrowdale. These rich meadows stretch to the borders of the mountains, whose
gazetteer links
button -- "Borrowdale" -- Borrowdale
button -- "Bowder Stone" -- Bowder Stone
button -- "Derwent" -- Derwent, River
button -- "Rosthwaite" -- Rosthwaite
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