Old Cumbria Gazetteer - viewpoint, Brant Fell


included in:-	Windermere lake
	viewpoint, Brant Fell
site name:-	Brant Fell
civil parish:-	Windermere (formerly Westmorland)
county:-	Cumbria
locality type:-	viewpoint
coordinates:-	SD40959615 (guess)
1Km square:-	SD4096
10Km square:-	SD49

evidence:-	descriptive text:- West 1778 (11th edn 1821) placename:- station, Windermere, West 5
source data:-	Guide book, A Guide to the Lakes, by Thomas West, published by William Pennington, Kendal, Cumbria once Westmorland, and in London, 1778 to 1821. goto source Page 66:- "..." "Return to Bowness, and conclude the survey by taking Mr. Young's general view of the lake, where at one glance, you command all its striking beauties. No station can better answer the purpose, and it would be here an injustice done to the discoverer, to deviate one tittle from his description." "STATION V. 'Thus having viewed the most pleasing objects from these points, let me next conduct you to a spot, where at one glance, you command them all in fresh situations, and all assuming a new appearance. For this purpose, you return to the village, and taking the bye-road to the turnpike, mount the hill without turning your head (if I was your guide, I would conduct you be-" goto source Page 67:- "[be]hind a small hill, that you might come at once upon the view) till you almost gain the top, when you will be struck with astonishment at the prospect spread at your feet, which, if not the most superlative view that nature can exhibit, she is more fertile in beauties than the reach of my imagination will allow me to conceive. It would be mere vanity to attempt to describe a scene which beggars all description; but that you may have some faint idea of the outlines of this wonderful picture, I will just give the particulars of which it consists." "'The point on which you stand is the side of a large ridge of hills that form the eastern boundary of the lake, and the situation high enough to look down upon all the objects; a circumstance of great importance, which painting cannot imitate. In landscapes, you are either on a level with the objects, or look up to them; the painter cannot give the declivity at your feet, which lessens the object as much in the perpendicular line, as in the horizontal one. You look down upon a noble winding valley, of about twelve miles long, every where inclosed with grounds, which rise in a very bold and various manner; in some places bulging into mountains, abrupt, wild, and cultivated; in others breaking into rocks, craggy, pointed, and" goto source Page 68:- "irregular; here rising into hills covered with the noblest woods, presenting a gloomy brownness of shade, almost from the clouds to the reflection of the trees in the limpid water of the lake they so beautifully skirt; there waving in glorious slopes of cultivated inclosures, adorned in the sweetest manner with every object that can give variety to art, or elegance to nature; trees, woods, villages, houses, farms, scattered with picturesque confusion, and waving to the eye in the most romantic landscapes that nature can exhibit." "'This valley, so beautifully inclosed, is floated by the lake, which spreads forth to right and left, in one vast, but irregular expanse of transparent water; a more noble object can hardly be imagined. Its immediate shore is traced in every variety of line that fancy can imagine; sometimes contracting the lake into the appearance of a noble winding river; at others retiring from it and opening into large bays, as if for navies to anchor in: promontories spread with woods, or scattered with trees and inclosures, projecting into the water in the most picturesque style imaginable; rocky points breaking the shore, and rearing their bold heads above the water; in a word, a variety that amazes the beholder." goto source Page 69:- "'But what finishes the scene, with an elegance too delicious to be imagined, is, this beautiful sheet of water being dotted with no less than ten islands, distinctly comprehended by the eye, all of the most bewitching beauty. The large one presents a waving various line, which rises from the water in the most picturesque inequalities of surface: high land in one place, low in another, clumps of trees in this spot, scattered ones in that, adorned by a farm-house on the water's edge, and backed with a little wood, vying in simple elegance with Baromean palaces; some of the smaller islets rising from the lake, like little hills of wood; some only scattered with trees, and others of grass of the finest verdure; a more beautiful variety is no where to be seen." "'Strain your imagination to command the idea of so noble an expanse of water, thus gloriously environed, spotted with islands, more beautiful than would have issued from the happiest painter. Picture the mountains rearing their majestic heads with native sublimity; the vast rocks boldly projecting their terrible craggy points, and, in the path of beauty, the variegated inclosures of the most charming verdure, hanging to the eye in every picturesque form that can grace landscape, with the most exquisite touches of la belle nature. If you raise your fancy to some-" goto source Page 70:- "[some]thing infinitely beyond this assemblage of rural elegancies, you may have a faint notion of the unexampled beauties of this ravishing landscape.'" "If the sun shines, this view of Mr. Young's can only be enjoyed early in the morning; as that on the opposite shore, behind the two oak trees, is, from a parity of circumstances, an afternoon prospect. These [stations, Windermere 4 and 5] are the finest stations on the lake for pleasing the eye, but are much too elevated for the purpose of the artist, ..."

evidence:-	old map:- Crosthwaite 1783-94 (Win/Ble)
source data:-	Map, uncoloured engraving, An Accurate Map of the Grand Lake of Windermere, scale about 2 inches to 1 mile, by Peter Crosthwaite, Keswick, Cumberland, 1783, version published 1819. CT9SD49C.jpg "Wests 5th. Station" square symbol item:- Armitt Library : 2008.14.102 Image © see bottom of page

evidence:-	old map:- Crosthwaite 1783-94 (Win/Ble) placename:- station, Windermere, West 5
source data:-	Series of maps, An Accurate Map of the Matchless Lake of Derwent, of the Grand Lake of Windermere, of the Beautiful Lake of Ullswater, of Broadwater or Bassenthwaite Lake, of Coniston Lake, of Buttermere, Crummock and Loweswater Lakes, and Pocklington's Island, by Peter Crosthwaite, Kendal, Cumberland now Cumbria, 1783 to 1794. marked on the map of lake Windermere "West's 5th. Station" "... his 5th. ¾of a Mile E. b N. of Windermere Ferry"

	indexing
person:-	author : West, Thomas
place:-	Windermere lake
date:-	1778
period:-	18th century, late
period:-	1780s
item:-	guide book; Guide to the Lakes

Lakes Guides menu.