Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/96

70 mountains, and lofty ridges which almost rival the highlands of Scotland in their gloomy grandeur and dark sublimity. The night, too, on which we reached Keswick was dark, as dark as it could be, the wind blew shrill and loud, and on whichever side we turned, dark purple peaks loomed at a distance in the midst of darkness and heavy clouds rolling on their tops and shrouding their sides, while the rapid and meandering Greta at our side thundered at every fall. Next morning we had a pleasant row on the Derwentwater, the lake of the lake-poets, and a very pretty lake too, surrounded by mountains and interspersed with lovely little islets. We rowed to the other end of the lake to see the celebrated falls of Lodore, of which Southey has given, as you must know, a very wordy description. The falls are very magnificent, the stream descends from a great height with the sound of thunder, while huge masses of rocks make it foam and dash down with great violence. On the same day we returned to Penrith, where we caught the express train and reached London at about 1, the 20th September. I must say I was very glad to come back to old London, unromantic as it is, with its busy shops and markets, its huge and unshapely omnibusses, clattering over stony streets, and its thousand haunts of business or pleasure,—such as you will seek for in vain in any other town in the world. Associations exercise a great influence over the human mind, and I could not look on the very streets and houses of old London without feeling a strange sort of pleasure, such as one feels on meeting an old acquaintance after a long absence.