THE MINERALS AND FLOWERS OF THE ENGLISH 



LAKE DISTRICT. 



By Dr. P. Q. KEEGAN. 



N area some fifty 

 miles in length 

 and breadth, al- 

 most every inch 

 of which is either 

 wildly grand, or 

 richly beautiful. 

 Where on earth 

 can be found such 

 varied scenic 

 beauty compres- 

 sed in so limited 

 a compass? 

 Where can be 

 found such a 

 practical com- 

 pendium, as it 

 were, of all that 

 is poetically im- 

 pressive, entranc- 



ing, 



affecting ? 



Where can be seen such an infinite assortment of 

 rock, fell, hill, dale, moorland, lake, cascade, and 

 waterfall ? 



On the eastern portion of the district, huge mounds 

 and hills appear, .grass-green, and with smooth, sloping 

 sides, rarely studded with rock or stone, or flanked 

 by craggy precipice. Prolonged banks of elevated 

 land, marshalled in parallel tiers, with intervening 

 valleys watered by streams, that dash here and there 

 in chequered cascades down the stony declivities. 

 But the mountain tops here are comparatively smooth 

 and rounded, level and plateau-like. Even the 

 valley- walls, the escarpments of the adjacent hills 

 are, for the most part, smooth and grassy, and 

 descend in gentle slopes terraced with earth. Here 

 and there a huge tumulus, emerald-green to the 

 summit, and sometimes zoned with wood, rises sheer 

 from the plain, or appears as a shoulder to some 

 narrow ridge of hills. At some places a valley, 

 No. 265.— January 1887. 



encompassed by groups of hills hewn into infinite 

 shapes, slopes away into serrated edges, guarding 

 narrow ravines lost in the long-drawn vista of 

 obscurity. There are few tarns here, and these are 

 generally low-lying, without much beauty of form, or 

 impressiveness of situation. Charming lakes, mostly 

 long and river-like, and guarded by wooded hills, 

 and knolls, rich-clad in verdure, nestle in the deep- 

 scooped hollow of the vales, with open freshness of 

 the air, and sweet breathing on the surface aspect of 

 the scene. Amid scenery such as this the atmosphere 

 is usually bright, cheery, and serene, and the moun- 

 tain tops are clear and unswathed by cloud, and free 

 of vapour-depositing winds. The forms are soft, and 

 harmoniously blended ; the colouring is magnificently 

 green, or of a dull brown, but occasionally a pale 

 blue, and more rarely deep or shadowy purple and 

 grey. Here is there no predominance or obtrusive- 

 ness of beetling cliffs, wild riven rocks, rugged ravines, 

 or hollow combes, rents and fissures in the walls ; 

 nor any lavish effusion of strange chaotic blocks and 

 boulders of stone, indicative of convulsion or dis- 

 ruption. Here Nature deals kindly with her visitant. 

 Through long lonely valleys, by way of ascents 

 gentle and gradual, over by-paths, smooth, soft, and 

 sometimes marshy, she leads the wooer of her charms 

 to scenes toned down from savage sublimity to 

 exquisite soul-entrancing beauty and loveliness.? 



In the western portion of the district, a rugged, irre- 

 claimable wildness and barrenness, a more chastened 

 and stronger beauty, an unequivocal stamp of the 

 weird power of nature are the characteristics. A 

 wild chaos of huge hill-tops, radiating as it were from 

 a fixed centre, spreads out into rugged ridges. Wild, 

 stony hills, cleft by deep, steep ravines are thrown 

 into an infinity of fantastic shapes, as if rough- 

 fashioned by potent subterranean forces, and lavishly 

 strewn and sifted over, as it were, with countless 

 blocks of bare unhewn stone. The gorges and 

 ravines are more profound, the valley-walls pre- 



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