Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/119

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so picturesque as that we had left; owing to the flat forms of the stony mountains, and the naked races of the meadows which here Merc unadorned with trees. But the scenery became much more interesting when the Lake of Thirlmere opened to us. Here a sheet of water was spread before us, divided into two parts by a little neck of land in the middle; its banks consisting for the most part of wild pasturage, now and then spotted with a cottage. At the further extremity the vale gradu- ally rises, and stretches to a distance in a series of meadows comprized between the august Helvellyn, whose striding-ridges* tower above the road to the left, and a black rocky mountain to the right. From the brow of this long rise, at the ten-mile stone, Grasmere discovers itself, accompanied by all its romantic and beautiful scenery; occupying the bot- tom of a deep vale hedged in by mountains, whose heads, rude, craggy, and fantastic, give all the force and beauty of contrast to the smiling meads and peaceful dwellings which rest beneath their feet. At the entrance, Helm-Crag lifts its rugged form, the scat of echoes strange and wild, who shelters under his broad precipitous side the exqui-

��* In Cumberland the summits of the mountains are called \iridhig-ridga ; as they terminate (particularly Heiutllyn) in sharp crags that may be literally stridden over.

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