St^ Rough Notes of a Tour to the Lakes. 



with no other monuments than the green clods of the valley. 

 In the building is no room for the squabbles of a select 

 vestry ; the surplice of the clergyman lay on the reading-desk 

 or pulpit, upon which was laid a well-read church bible, 

 covered with brown paper. 



The most remarkable feature of the churchyard is a very 

 old yew tree, with hollow trunk, which is figured by Mr. 

 Green, and of which I also made a sketch. On the summit 

 of three or four moss-covered steps, from the crevices of 

 which grow in profusion a beautiful little geranium ( G. Ro- 

 bertzawwm), then in full bloom, is a stone pillar, surmounted 

 with a brass sundial intended to supply the place of a village 

 clock. On the other side of the lane, and nearly opposite 

 the- little cemetery, is the parsonage house, a small stone 

 building ; whilst hard by is a curious erection, composed of 

 uncemented stones, appropriated to the use of the parish 

 schoolmaster. We saw this flourisher of the village birch, 

 and there certainly was much more of the rural than the 

 classical about his outer man. 



This afternoon we gained the summit of the mountain 

 behind our inn, from which, on a clear day, there must be a 

 commanding prospect ; but, as it was, we saw little else than 

 that the summits of the surrounding mountains were enveloped 

 in clouds. Here we could not help remarking the beautiful 

 variety of the mosses and lichens vegetating from the rocks on 

 this mountain. Before tea we strolled along the bank of the 

 lake, gathering many of the beautiful wild flowers that we met 

 with, including three species of geranium, of which there was 

 a great quantity growing out of the rock. Here, also, we had 

 a sight of that beautiful bird the pied fly-catcher (Muscicapa 

 luctuosa Temm,): it is most plentiful in the mountainous dis- 

 tricts of Cumberland, and is often shot in the woods at Low- 

 ther. The curious voice of that " delightful visitant," the 

 cuckoo, was to be heard almost every hour of the day ; and 

 their being so numerous in Cumberland and Westmoreland 

 may probably be in some measure accounted for by an 

 immense number of titlarks inhabiting such of the mountains 

 as are covered with vegetation. It is in the nest of the titlark 

 that this unnatural mother deposits her egg. 



We frequently saw the delicate sandpiper skimjning over 

 the surface of the lake, or strutting in the shallow water on its 

 edge. 



The extreme length of Ulswater is about nine miles ; and 

 we were informed by a gentleman angling in the lake, that in 

 some parts it is ] 30 fathoms deep. It abounds with fish, par- 

 ticularly trout, and a small species of char : wild ducks are very 

 plentiful upon it. G. 



