steep and grassy banks, or bold projecting rocks, rising to a vast height; the native woods in a wild intricacy, impend from the rocks, which are additionally clothed with fern, moss, and other vegetation." From Ambleside the tourist can cross the pass of Kirkstone,

"Where, save the rugged road, we find,

No appanage of human kind,"

on the ascent to which is the Kirkstone inn, the highest inhabited house in England, and proceed by the hotel at Patterdale (ten miles) to Ullswater; but as that lake, as well as the vale, may be best viewed from the other end, we will notice it after describing the route by way of Rydal and Grasmere to Keswick.

The distance from Ambleside to Rydal, on the Keswick road, is one mile and a half; but the pedestrian might proceed along the banks of the Rothay, entering the fields at Rothay Bridge, a more circuitous route, but one that winds among scenery of a richer and more diversified character. This road passes Fox Ghyll (Hornby Roughsedge, Esq.), Fox Howe (Mrs. Arnold), and other tasteful villas, and enters the highway a few hundred yards from Rydal. A fine retrospective view may be had of Ambleside, and at different points on this road may be seen Fairfield rising before, and Kirkstone on the right of the traveller, while, still nearer, Rydal Hall and Rydal Mount are attractive objects.

The pretty village of Rydal is situated at the foot of Rydal Water, in a confined yet exceedingly beautiful valley. The neat chapel which is seen on first entering was built at the sole expense of Lady le Fleming, to whom Wordsworth addressed a poem, on seeing the foundation prepared for its erection. Near to the village, in a splendid park, is Rydal Hall, the patrimonial seat of the above-named lady.

The road leading to the hall passes near to Rydal Mount, the residence of the late Mr. Wordsworth.

The house of the late laureate is an unpretending cottage-like building, partially covered with ivy,

and surrounded by scenery of incomparable beauty. From the grounds, which were laid out and principally planted, in a tasteful manner, by Wordsworth himself, may be had glimpses of Windermere, and fine views of other parts of the district.

In

short, the spot is just what the reader of Wordsworth might anticipate from his writings, over some of which, no doubt, it has shed its genial influence. Mrs. Sigourney's lines on the occasion of her visit to this place bear testimony to the beauty of the country without, and the domestic harmony which prevailed within, the dwelling of the poet :

"Thee, too, I found within thy sylvan dell,

Whose music thrilled my heart when life was new,
Wordsworth! mid cliff and stream and cultured rose,
In love with Nature's self, and she with thee.
Thy ready hand, that from the landscape culled
Its long familiar charms, rock, tree, and spire,
With kindness half paternal, leading on

My stranger footsteps through the garden walk,
Mid shrubs and flowers that from thy planting grew;
The group of dear ones gathering round thy board-
She, the first friend, still as in youth beloved,

The daughter, sweet companion, sons mature,

And favourite grandchild, with his treasured phrase ----
The evening lamp, that o'er thy silver locks
And ample brow fell fitfully, and touched
Thy lifted eye with earnestness of thought,
Are with me as a picture, ne'er to fade,

Till death shall darken all material things."

Here, then, in his rural retreat, surrounded by exquisite beauty and sublimity, enjoying domestic happiness, peace, and leisure, endowed with rare abilities, and favoured by fortune with the means of pursuing his high vocation, did Wordsworth compose and give to the world those productions which are universally admired and applauded. With a genius to discern what ordinary minds have no conception of, his most touching scenes are drawn from common life: he has left the beaten track, and has linked the lowliest and humblest of Nature's productions to imperishable verse. An eminent writer observes, "the grand truth which pervades his poetry is, that the beautiful is not confined to the rare, the new, the distant, to scenes and modes of

life open only to the few; but that it is poured forth profusely on the common earth and sky, that it gleams from the lowliest flower, that it lights up the humblest sphere, that the sweetest affections lodge in holy hearts, that there is sacredness, dignity, and loveliness in lives which few eyes rest on, and even in the absence of all intellectual culture, the domestic relations can nourish that disinterestedness which is the element of all true greatness, and without which intellectual power is a splendid deformity. Wordsworth is the poet of humanity; he teaches reverence for our universal nature; he breaks down the factitious barriers between human hearts."

To view the two waterfalls at Rydal it is necessary to take a conductor from the village. The higher is a considerable fall, rolling down a perpendicular rock, at first much contracted, and afterwards spreading into a broader sheet, and dashing into the dark basin at its foot. The lower fall is viewed from the window of a summer-house, and presents a scene of indescribable beauty. pretty cascade is referred to by Wordsworth in a juvenile poem entitled "An Evening Walk:"

"Then while I wandered where the budding rill
Brightens with water-breaks the hollow ghyll
As by enchantment, an obscure retreat
Opened at once, and stayed my devious feet,
While thick about the rill the branches close,
In rocky basin its wild waves repose,
Inverted shrubs, and moss of gloomy green,
Cling from the rocks, with pale wood-weeds between,
And its own twilight softens the whole scene;

Save where aloft the subtle sunbeams shine
On withered briars that o'er the crags recline;
Save where with sparkling foam a small cascade,
Illumines, from within, the leafy shade;
Beyond, along the vista of the brook,

Where antique roots its bustling course o'erlook,
The eye reposes on a secret bridge

Half grey, half shagged with ivy to its ridge."

This

Mr. Gilpin also describes this spot as an excellent subject for the pencil. "The dark colour of the stone, taking still a deeper tinge from the wood which hangs over it, sets off to wonderful advantage the sparkling lustre of the stream, and produces an uncommon effect of light. It is this effect, indeed, from which the chief beauty of this little exhibition arises. In every representation truly picturesque, the shade should greatly overbalance the light. The face of nature under the glow of noon, has rarely this beautiful appearance. The artist, therefore, generally courts her charms in a morning or an evening hour, when the shadows are deep and extended, and when the sloping sun-beam affords rather a catching than a glaring light. Here we have an admirable idea of the magical effect of light picturesquely distributed."

Rydal Water is only about half a mile in length, and its breadth probably not more than four or five hundred yards. Its surface is graced by two small islands, and its banks are adorned by woods and green fields, surrounded by Nab Scar on the north, and Loughrigg Fell on the south. Its main feeder flows from Grasmere Lake. The lake cannot be viewed to advantage from the main road, but better views may be had by following the footpath to Grasmere, under Nab Scar, or the road under Loughrigg Fell, already spoken of. On the larger of the islands is a heronry, and the tourist seldom passes without observing these graceful birds, either flying over the lake, or perched upon some of the

trees.

From Rydal to Grasmere (one mile and a half on the main road) the tourist passes, near to the former place, Nab Cottage, where the late Hartley Coleridge resided for twelve years, and where he died in the summer of 1848; afterwards, White