Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/37

Rh Buttermere is close to the village of Gatesgarth, and you will ride very near that lake all the way to the village of Buttermere; where is an alehouse, at which you can get admirable ale, and bread and cheese, perchance a joint of mutton.

Few people will like to sleep at the Buttermere alehouse: but, with the help of my own sheets, blanket, pillows, and counterpane, I lodged there a week very comfortably.

From Buttermere I one day walked to the Wad Mines, or blacklead mines, and returned over the top of Honister Crag. Another day, I walked over the mountains by Gatesgarth into Innerdale, and through it to Inner Bridge, on the whole, sixteen miles. If possible Innerdale should be seen, for it is beautiful, particularly about Gillerthwaite, at the head of the lake; and again at the foot of the lake, looking up the vale towards its head. At the alehouse at Inner Bridge, I was obliged to pass the night in a chair by the kitchen fire, there being not a bed in the house fit to put myself upon. The next morning I returned over the mountains, by Scale Force, to my lodgings.—But to return to the travellers on horseback.

At Buttermere you may leave your horses, and walk about a mile to Scale Force, a very lofty