Pedestrians who would see Thirlemere and Helvellyn at the most favourable point of view, must cross the fields to a place called City, at the head of the Lake; after passing this primitive village, containing about half a dozen houses, the road leads through a narrow lane, and by a wild Cliff to the left, called Bull Crags, from whence a view of Helvellyn is seen rearing its lordly head at the other side of the Lake, the road running along its base. Thirlemere is fed principally by two streams, the one rising in Wythburn Head; the other, issuing out of Harrop Tarn, a marshy water of considerable size, situated high above the western side of the valley. From Wythburn Chapel the carriage road winds by the base of Helvellyn and the margin of the lake; which latter

it afterwards leaves by a very steep ascent, exhibiting in all their grandeur the Fells of Borrowdale. Arrived at the top, a very exquisite landscape is seen below; extending over the vale of Legberthwaite; or more euphoniously and modernly,the vale of St. John's. This beautiful valley is a classic spot being the scene in which Sir Walter Scott's poem of the Bridal of Triermain is laid. It is a narrow vale hemmed in by high mountains, through which a small stream, the overflow of Thirlemere, makes many meanderings. Overlooking it is the fantastic pile of rocks, resembling a castle, which Sir Walter represents as the scene of king Arthur's amorous dalliance with the Fairies, when he was on his way to Carlisle.

Paled in by many a lofty hill,

The narrow dale lay smooth and still
And down its verdant bosom led,
A winding brooklet found its bed.
But mid-most of the vale, a mound
Arose, with airy turrets crowned,
Buttress and ramparts circling bound
And mighty keep and tower,
Seemed some primeval giant's hand

The Castle's massive walls had planned ;—
A ponderous bulwark.-

In Hutchinson's Excursion to the Lakes, a prose description, and a much more intelligible one, is given of the appearance of these rocks, and of the superstition attached to them. The inhabitants to this day believe them to be an antediluvian structure, and assert that the traveller, whose curiosity is aroused, will find it vain to approach them; as the guardian genii of the place transforms the walls and battlements into naked rocks when any one draws too near. An error made by Sir Walter Scott in his description of the scenery, it may be as well to correet. commencement of Lyulph's tale, he says

King Arthur has ridden from merry Carlisle,
When Pentecost was o'er,

He journey'd Ike errant knight the while

And sweetly the summer sun did smile

On mountain, moss, and moor.

Above his solitary track

Rose Glaramara's ridgy back :

At the

In a note to this passage, he adds, that the huge mountain, Saddleback, is more poetically called Glaramara. This is not the fact. The poetical or

Blencathra, and

ancient name of Saddleback is Glaramara is another mountain altogether.

VALE OF ST. JOHN'S, AND SADDLEBACK.

From the vale of St. John's the descent to Keswick is most magnificent: Skiddaw and Blencathra and Helvellyn are visible in all their grandeur, and the inferior hills-inferior in size, but not in beautyrear their heads in varied shapes around, and form a panorama of surpassing splendour. At Castle Rigg Brow, the glancing waters of the Lake of Bassenthwaite are seen beyond Keswick, and its lovely valley, lovelier, to my idea, than any other scene in the whole

of the lake district, not excepting even the view from Orrest Head, which every traveller feels himself bound to admire. For three or four miles before arriving at Keswick, the landscape changes its aspect at every turn;—and at every turn unfolds a succession of charms; and he who loves natural beauty with the true enthusiasm, becomes too enraptured with the aggregate to think of asking the names of its component parts, or noting down what this hill may be to the right-and what this to the left-or what may be the name of the chain of mountains that define their peaks against the blue sky in the distance. The vale of Keswick stretches nearly north and south, from the head of Derwentwater to the foot of Bassenthwaite; with the river Greta and Thirlemere or Leathes Water on the west, and with the vale of Newlands on the east. Keswick itself is a small neat town, close to the foot of Derwentwater, and next to Ambleside is the most convenient starting point and home of the tourist who desires to view at his leisure the beauties of this beautiful land.*

The

*No traveller to the Lake district should omit paying a visit to a curiosity of art to be seen in Keswick ;-Mr. Flintoff's beautiful model of the whole country :—

The horizontal and vertical scale of the Model is three inches to a mile; in length, from Sebergham to Rampside, 51 miles, or 12 feet 9 inches; breadth, from Shap to Egremont, 37 miles, or 9 feet 3 inches; circumference, exclusive of sea, 176 miles. The coast is shewn two-fifths of the distance, presenting the Bays of