standing at the mouth of the highest reach, Moss Holm, Middle Holm, and Cherry Holm; and the boat may be taken to the foot of a broad rock overhanging the water, a little beyond the Berk Fell promontory, from the grassy summit of which the views of the upper and middle reaches are extremely fine. Place Fell Quarry, half a mile from the inn, is a good station for viewing the lake; and the walk to Blowick, two farm-houses under Place Fell, affords many charming prospects. The slate quarry at Blowick has been selected as a station for an outline etching. Deepdale, Brothers Water, and Hartsope should be visited for many exquisite scenes. BROTHERS WATER is a large tarn, lying in a huge niche, taking its name from the sad circumstance of two brothers having lost their lives in it an accident which has twice occurred. The road to Ambleside passes along its eastern margin. A ramble of five or six miles may be taken into the retired district of Martindale, where Mr. Hasell has a herd of that rare animal the red deer; nor would the hardy pedestrian have much difficulty in making his way over the fells to Hawes Water. The summits of Helvellyn and High Street might be visited, both of which will repay the visitor for the toil he must necessarily incur by the extensive views they command. The angler will be glad to learn that Hayes Water and Angle Tarn, two sheets of water in the neighbourhood, will afford him ample amusement in his favourite pursuit.

Instead of making a circuit by Ambleside in order to reach Grasmere, the pedestrian is informed that he may make a short cut through the glen of GRISEDALE. The road leaves Patterdale at Grisedale Bridge and passes, for a short distance, along a wood on the banks of the stream. Amongst the trees are some hollies of unusual size. Half way up the vale there are some lead mines under Striding Edge, but the path to be taken keeps on the right bank of the stream for some time, passing underneath St. Sunday's Crag. Having crossed

the beck, it recrosses it just where it issues from a tarn that lies in a hollow under the east flank of Seat Sandal. Between that mountain and Helvellyn, there is a depression through which the mountains about Newlands Vale are visible. From a point near Grisedale Tarn a small portion of Ulleswater, which has been hitherto invisible, is seen, and Birkfell shoots pyramidically upThe ascent of Helvellyn is sometimes commenced near the foot of the tarn.

wards.

On passing through a little gate in a wall that runs along the ridge, the descent inte Grasmere begins. The view from the Grasmere side of Grisedale Pass is much more extensive than that from the other side. It embraces the Coniston Fell range, Langdale Pikes, Bowfell, and Scawfell. The glen joins the main valley at a point opposite Helm Crag. The distance from Patterdale to Grasmere, village to village, is about ten miles.

A few yards beyond the bridge which crosses the stream from Brothers Water, two miles from Patterdale, and on the road to Ambleside, there is a grand panorama of mountains to be seen. Near at hand is the extreme link in the Place Fell chain; Kidsty Pike is seen through an opening, but Grey Crag excludes a sight of High Street; Dodd, with sloping sides like the roof of a house, and Codale Crags, stand on the east of Kirkstone Pass, to the west of which are the Screes and Dodd Bield. Kaystone occupies a position to the east of a glen, at the top of which are some tremendous precipices, called Dow Crags. Low Wood, richly clothed with trees, is seen reflected on Brothers Water, and terminates this striking range. Ambleside is ten miles from Patterdale, the road leading over the steep pass of Kirkstone, so called, it is supposed, from a church-like block of stone on the west of the path near the summit. The retrospective views in ascending are fine. Brothers Water is seen far below, and Place Fell closes in the distance. A small inn, bearing the sign of "The Traveller's Rest," has lately been erected on the highest part of the pass, disturbing with its mean

associations the solemn feelings which the surrounding solitude is calculated to inspire. It has been ascertained that this building stands seventy-eight feet higher than any other habitation in England. In building it, a stone sepulchre, resembling a coffin, apparently very ancient, was found a few inches below the surface of the earth. It contained some bones and a coin. Just at this point the precipice called Red Screes overhangs the way, and the road to Troutbeck deviates to the left. In descending, Windermere and the valley of Ambleside are spread out like a map before the spectator. The hill in front is Wansfell Pike.

DERWENT WATER,

A scene

otherwise KESWICK LAKE, is about half a mile from the town, from which the latter name is taken. of more luxuriant beauty than this lake affords can scarcely be imagined. Its shape is symmetrical without being formal, while its size is neither so large as to merge the character of the lake in that of the inland sea, nor so circumscribed as to expose it to the charge of insignificance. The admirers of nature are divided in opinion as to the respective merits of this lake and Ulleswater; some assigning the palm of superiority to the one, and some to the other. Those who are familiar with the Alpine scenery of Scotland, which surpasses in savage grandeur any thing within the limits of the sister country, almost uniformly give the preference to Derwentwater; while those who have not possessed opportunities of contemplating nature in her sterner moods, receive a deeper impression from the more majestic attributes of her rival.*

Derwentwater approaches to the oval form, extending from north to south about three miles, and being in

* Messrs. Stanley and Richardson, whose pencils have enriched the present volume with views of these lakes, espouse different sides of the question. Our readers will agree with us that they have each so eloquently enforced the claims of their respective favourites, as to make it a knotty point for an intelligent jury to decide the cause.

breadth about a mile and a half, "expanding within an amphitheatre of mountains, rocky but not vast, broken into many fantastic shapes, peaked, splintered, impending, sometimes pyramidal, opening by narrow valleys to the view of rocks that rise immediately beyond, and are again overlooked by others. The precipices seldom overshoot the water, but are arranged at some distance; and the shores swell with woody eminences, or sink into green pastoral margins. Masses of wood also frequently appear among the cliffs, feathering them to their summits; and a white cottage sometimes peeps from out their skirts, seated on the smooth knoll of a pasture projecting to the lake, and looks 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 translucent is its surface, that it rather heightens than obscures the colouring."*

The principal islands in the lake are Vicar's Isle, Lord's Island, and St. Herbert's Isle. VICAR'S ISLE or DERWENT ISLE, is that nearest the foot of the lake; it contains about six acres, and belongs to Captain Henry, whose residence is upon it. This island was formerly an appurtenant to Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire. LORD'S ISLAND, of a size somewhat larger than the last, has upon it the hardly perceptible remains of a pleasure house, erected by one of the Ratcliffes with the stones of their deserted castle, which stood on Castlerigg. This island was once connected with the main-land, from which it was severed by the Ratcliffes, by a fosse, over which a drawbridge was thrown. ST. HERBERT'S ISLE, placed nearly in the centre of the lake, derives its name from a holy hermit who lived in the seventh

So transparent is the water that pebbles may be easily seen fifteen or twenty feet below its surface, and we are reminded of the Sicilian Lake ("nemorum frondoso margine cinctus") described by Claudian:

Admittit in altum

Cernentes oculos, et late pervius humor
Ducit in offenso liquido sub gurgite visus,
Imaque perspicui prodit secreta profundi.

CLAUD. de Rapt. Pros.

century, and had his cell on this island. To St. Cuthbert of Durham this "saintly eremite" bore so perfect a love, as to pray that he himself might expire the moment the breath of life quitted the body of his friend, so that their souls might wing their flight to heaven in company. Wordsworth's inscription for the spot where the hermitage stood, from which the following lines are taken, refers to this legend,

"When, with eye upraised

To heaven, he knelt before the crucifix,
While o'er the lake the cataract of Lowdore
Peal'd to his orisons, and when he paced
Along the beach of this small isle, and thought
Of his companion, he would pray that both
(Now that their earthly duties were fulfill'd)
Might die in the same moment. Nor in vain
So pray'd he-as our chronicles report,
Though here the hermit number'd his last day,
Far from St. Cuthbert his beloved friend-
Those holy men both died in the same hour."

At the period when the Pope's laws were supreme in England, the Vicar of Crosthwaite went to celebrate mass in his chapel on the island, on the thirteenth of April annually, to the joint honour of St. Herbert and St. Cuthbert; to every attendant at which forty days indulgence was granted as a reward for his devotion. "What a happy holyday must that have been for all these vales," says Southey; "and how joyous on a fine spring day must the lake have appeared, with boats and banners from every chapelry; and how must the chapel have adorned that little isle, giving a human and religious character to the solitude!" Near the ruins of the chapel, the late Sir Wilfred Lawson (to whose representative the island at present belongs) erected a few years ago a small cottage, which being built of unhewn stone, and artificially mossed over, has an appearance of antiquity. There are three or four other islets, the largest of which is Rampsholm.

At irregular intervals of a few years, the lake exhibits a singular phenomenon in the rising of a piece of ground, called the FLOATING ISLAND, from the bottom to the