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Print, uncoloured engraving, Derwentwater from Brough
Top, Cumberland, drawn by Joseph Farington, engraved by F R
Hay, published by T Cadell and W Davies, Strand, London,
1815.
Plate 17 in The Lakes of Lancashire, Westmorland, and
Cumberland.
The accompanying text is by Thomas Hartwell Horne:-
DERWENTWATER FROM BROUGH TOP.
DERWENT-WATER, or KESWICK LAKE, as it is frequently termed
from its vicinity to the town of Keswick, is of an irregular
form, somewhat approaching to the oval, and about three
miles in length, by one and a half in width. By many
tourists, this Lake has been supposed to be the finest in
the North of England; but for grandeur and sublimity
Ulswater is now allowed to claim the pre-eminence.
Derwentwater, however, has this decided advantage over the
other Lakes, viz. that it immediately appears to be what it
is. The dark frowning Skiddaw 'forms its northern boundary,
and seems to rise almost immediately from its shore, though
it is at its nearest point half a league distant, and the
town of Keswick intervenes. One long mountain, along which
the road forms a fine terrace, reaches nearly along the
whole of its western side: and through the space between
this and the next mountain, which in many points of view
appears like the lower segment of a prodigious circle, a
lovely vale is seen which runs up amomg the hills.' But the
pride of Derwentwater is the head, where the mountains of
Borrowdale bound the prospect in a manner singularly wild
and grand. Our view, which is taken from Brough Top (an
eminence on the left of the road to Keswick from Ambleside,)
will convey an accurate idea of its general features. 'The
whole,' says Mrs. Radcliffe, 'is seen at one glance,
expanding within an amphitheatre of mountains, rocky but not
vast; broken into many fantastic shapes, peaked, splintered,
impending, and sometimes pyramidal, opening by narrow
vallies to the view of rocks that rise immediately byeond
(sic), and are again overlooked by others. The precipices
seldom hang over the water, but are arranged at some
distance; and the shores swell with woody eminences, or sink
into green pastural margins. Masses of wood also appear
among the cliffs feathering them to their summits' (as may
be seen in the foreground on the left of our engraving;)
'and a white cottage sometimes peeps from out their skirts,
seated on the smooth knoll of a pasture, and looking so
exquisitely picturesque, as to seem placed there purposely
to adorn it. The Lake in return faithfully reflects the
whole picture; and so even and brilliantly pellucid is its
surface, that it rather heightens than obscures the
colouring.'
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