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Print, uncoloured engraving, Wastdale Village, drawn by
Joseph Farington, engraved by J Landseer, published by T
Cadell and W Davies, Strand, London, 1815.
Plate 25 in The Lakes of Lancashire, Westmorland and
Cumberland ... with text by Thomas Hartwell Horne:-
WASTDALE VILLAGE, / IS situated among the western mountains
of Cumberland, about two miles north from Eskdale; and has
in its front the Lake of Wast-Water. From the difficulty of
access to these interesting objects, except on the side of
Egremont, this Village and Lake are seldom visited by
strangers, but the traveller will be well rewarded on
approaching the secluded and truly alpine valley in which
the village is situated. Here every thing is rural, and seen
in the true style of pastoral beauty and simplicity.
Excepting the opening towards the Lake the valley is closely
surrounded by mountains. That which is most conspicuous in
our view rises in the form of a cone, to a stupendous
height, and presents a precipitous front; which, under
varying effects of light and shade, exhibits alternately the
aweful, the beautiful, and the sublime. It is a delightful
recess, different in its character from any other in this
country, formed of magnificent, romantic, and pastoral
scenery. The road runs along the north side of the Lake,
which is about three miles in length, and three quatrers of
a mile broad in the widest part. The
Screes, a very lofty ridge of mountains, runs along
the southern shore, and the loose rocks on its sides are in
almost constant motion, shivering down into the water:
sometimes, however, their progress is arrested by large
fragments of rocks, which have unaccountably stopt in their
descent, and by parts, which being too precipitous for the
stones to rest on, are darkened with mosses; and every
variety of form and colour is reflected by the dark water at
its foot.
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