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Print, uncoloured engraving, Buttermere and Crommock
Water, Buttermere, Cumberland, drawn by Joseph Farington,
engraved by F R Hay, published by T Cadell and W Davies,
Strand, London, 1815.
Plate 28 in The Lakes of Lancashire, Westmorland, and
Cumberland.
The accompanying text is by Thomas Hartwell Horne:-
BUTTERMERE AND CROMMOCK WATER.
THE Lake of Buttermere is of an oblong form, not exceeding
half a mile in breadth; its length is something more than a
mile and a half, and it derives its supply of water from a
river that flows through Gatesgarth-Dale. Its western shores
are hemmed in by a long range of rugged mountains, which
rise abruptly from the margin of the water with dark and
gloomy aspects, and are known to the shepherds, by whom
their craggy steeps are chiefly traversed, by the names of
Hay-Cock, High-Crag, High-Stile, and Red-Pike. The blue
rag-stone, of which these dark mountains are mostly
composed, is not porous, and absorbs but little water; a
circumstance that accounts for the number and variety of the
little waterfalls, which in different parts are seen pouring
down their steep sides. The eastern shores rise more gently,
are partially wooded, and admit of cultivation at a short
distance from the Lake; the north end is skirted by the
verdant vale of Buttermere, so celebrated by tourists; and
the southern extremity is bounded by Honister Crag, which is
delineated in the folowing engraving. From this steep,
numerous torrents are continually pouring down their foaming
waters into the Lake: one of these roaring cataracts appears
in the back-ground of the present view. It is called
Scale-force, and is two hundred feet perpendicular: the
steep on both sides is covered with moss, fern, ash, and
oak, which are all fed by the constant spray, and flourish
in indescribable verdure. The delicacy of the effect is
heightened by being in a narrow chasm, a hundred yards in
the rock, before it rushes into the lower fall, from the
point of which the best view is to be obtained.
CROMMOCK, or CRUMMOCK WATER, which is seen in the
fore-ground of the present view, is separated from
Buttermere by a fine level and luxuriant vale. The view form
the middle of Crummock Water is singularly grand: the
mountains on each side, rise immediately from the water, and
consequently appear higher as well as more precipitous than
some others in its neighbourhood. Some of these are naked,
other wooded to their bases; some are verdant, and some
rocky and heathy. This lake is nearly four miles long, and
about half a mile broad.
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