HAWKSHEAD AND CONISTON. * [Inn:-Red Lion.] HAWKSHEAD, an ancient market town of inconsiderable size, stands at the head of the vale of Esthwaite in Lancashire, five miles from Ambleside, and the like distance from Bowness. The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, occupies an elevation in the town, which commands a good prospect of the adjacent country. The great benefactor of Hawkshead was Edwyne Sandys, Archbishop of York in the reign of Elizabeth, who made additions to the church, and founded the Grammar School in 1585. The church contains a monument to the Archbishop's father and mother. In the churchyard there lies interred the accomplished Miss Elizabeth Smith, of whom, though she has been dead nearly forty years, a memoir has but recently appeared. Dr. Wordsworth, and his brother the poet, were both educated at the school; and fondly does the latter cherish remembrances of his school days, as the frequent recurrence to them in his poems testifies. The most wonder of strangers by talking of their three hundred bulls, constables, and bridges; the explanation of which is, that a portion of the township is divided into three parts, called hundreds, each of which had a bull, a constable, and a bridge. A giant dwelt in Troutbeck in days of yore-by name Hugh Hird-who could lift a beam too heavy for ten ordinary men; drove back a party of Scotch marauders with his bow and arrows; and, upon being sent with despatches to court, surprised his Majesty no less by his feats of strength than by his voracity, fixing, when presented with a bill of fare, upon the sunny side of a wether; i. e., he selected a whole sheep. These tales are firmly believed by the yeomen of Troutbeck, for as yet no Niebuhr has arisen amongst them. * It is probable that Hawkshead was the birth-place of this eminent prelate, who was a member of an ancient family, still seated in the neighbourhood. He was born in 1519, and after having suffered an imprisonment in the Tower, and the misery of an exile, became successively Bishop of Worcester and London, before he adorned the Archiepiscopal See of York. He was one of the Translators of the Bible, and the friend of Cranmer, Jewel, and Hooker. His son, George Sandys (called by Dryden "the ingenious and learned Sandys, the best versifier of the former age"), besides being a poet, travelled in the East, and wrote an account of his wanderings. E remarkable object in the neighbourhood is the little lake of Esthwaite, a quiet cheerful piece of water, about two miles in length, and a third of a mile in breadth at its broadest part. Were it not for a peninsula, which stretches into its waters from the west shore, the regularity of the margin might subject it to the charge of monotony, for an absence of all striking scenery is characteristic of the lake as well as of the vale. Nevertheless, many pretty houses, scattered up and down, give an enlivening effect to the scenery; and the mountain-summits, which peer into this from other valleys, serve to restore the sense of an Alpine region. A floating-island, twenty-four yards by five, occupies a pond near the head of the lake. When the wind is high, this piece of ground, with its alders and willows, is very visibly thrown into motion. The superfluous water of the lake is carried off by a stream called the Cunsey into Windermere. Esthwaite-water is the scene of Wordsworth's fine skating description. Perhaps the best station for viewing the lake is from a point on the west margin, and towards its foot, about two hundred yards on the Ulverston road, after its divergence from the road to Windermere. A drive round the lake will form a pleasant extension of the excursion. Quitting Hawkshead for Coniston, an old farmhouse, with a mullioned window, will be seen near a brook, at the angle where the Coniston and Ambleside roads diverge. Here, in former days, one or two monks, from Furness Abbey, resided, in order to administer spiritual assistance to the neighbourhood, and to perform Divine service in the church. It was here, also, that the Abbots of Furness held their manor courts. From the acclivity which has to be ascended, there is a good view to the right of hills which principally cluster round the valley of Ambleside. The group begins with Hill Bell; the pointed mountain in front is Wansfell-whilst through the pass of Kirkstone, you catch a glimpse of Place Fell on Ulleswater. Kirkstone presents a fine outline, succeeded by Scandal Fell, Fairfield, and Rydal Fell. Loughrigg, which stands in the foreground, shrinks to a mole-hill when brought into measurable comparison with his lofty brethren. The road then lies across elevated ground, bare both of vegetation and interest, until we begin to descend into Coniston vale, which opens out to the eye, with its lake and verdure, in a manner the most charming. The Man Mountain is right in front, and the deep coom, where the mines are situate, is conspicuous. The bold outline, with the alternate prominences and depressions, is exceedingly fine, and attracts the attention almost to the exclusion of every thing else. The road winds through the grounds attached to Waterhead House (J. Marshall, Esq.); and when the level ground is attained, a cottage, overrun with ivy and shaded by trees, will irresistibly draw out the sketcher's portfolio and pencil. Shortly afterwards, Coniston lake, sometimes called Thurston water, appears. Waterhead Inn, nine miles from Ambleside, will furnish comfortable quarters, and is a convenient place whence to detour through the neighbourhood, which contains much worth seeing. A description of the lake will be found on a subsequent page, where some excursions are pointed out. The station, from which the outline view of this lake is taken, is a little beyond Tent Lodge, on the Ulverston road. The ascent of the Old Man may be made from this spot more commodiously than from any other place. The valley of the DUDDON (described on a previous page) can be approached by the Walna Scar Road, Newfield in Seathwaite being six or seven miles from Coniston. The carriage visitor, however, must make a longer round to reach this secluded vale, namely, by Torver, and thence either by Broughton Mills to Newfield, or by the village of Broughton and through Donnerdale. The first of these routes is the shortest, but then the lower portion of the vale is not seen. THE LANGDALES. AN excursion frequently made by the temporary residents in Ambleside, is that through the Langdales. If the object of the tourist is merely to view Great Langdale (the finer of the two vales) with Dungeon Gill Force, and to ascend the Pikes, he will traverse a road perfectly practicable for carriages; but if he desire to see something more of the country, by visiting Skelwith and Colwith Forces, Little Langdale and Blea Tarns, he must be content to go on horseback, in a car, or on foot. This circuit, which we shall describe, is about eighteen miles in length. With the intention, then, of visiting the two Langdales in succession, the tourist will leave Ambleside by the road to Clappersgate, winding under the craggy heights of Loughrigg Fell, on the banks of the Brathay, near the source of which he will be erelong. A newly built chapel will be observed in a charming situation on the south bank of the river. "Sweeter stream-scenery," says Wilson, “with richer fore, and loftier back ground, is nowhere to be seen within the four seas." A few hundred yards above Skelwith Bridge (three miles from Ambleside) the stream is precipitated over a ledge of rock, making a fall twenty feet in height. The cascade is not so remarkable in itself, as for the magnificent scenery around it; Langdale Pikes have a peculiarly striking appearance. By this bridge the traveller is conducted into Lancashire, in which county the road does not continue for more than a mile before it re-enters Westmorland at Colwith Bridge. A short distance above the bridge, the stream, issuing from a tarn farther up, makes a fine cascade seventy feet high, called Colwith Force, in a dell close to the road. A stupendous mountain, called Wetherlamb; occupies a conspicuous position in a chain of lofty hills on the south-west. Proceeding onwards, Little Langdale Tarn becomes visible on the left-on the right is Lingmoor, a hill which serves as a partition between the two Langdales. Shortly after passing the tarn, the road to be taken bends to the right, and ascending some distance between the mountains, a solitary pool of water, named Blea Tarn, is perceived in the bottom of an elevated depression. The scene here presented is thus described in the "Excursion;" the description, however, supposes the spectator to look down upon it, not from the road, but from one of the hill-sides, and the fir plantations did not then exist:: "Beneath our feet, a little lowly vale, Among the mountains; even as if the spot Though not of want. The little fields made green Paid cheerful tribute to the moorland house- Those magnificent objects, "the two huge peaks That from some other vale peer into this,' are the two Pikes of Langdale. The southern one is named Pike o' Stickle-the other, and higher, Harrison Stickle. Having passed the tarn, the road winds down a steep descent into the head of Great Langdale, that part of it called Mickleden, through which is the road over the Stake into Borrowdale, being right before the eye. From the top of the descent, Bowfell and Crinkle Crags have a grand appearance. Mill Beck, a |