20 "^^ETalfts at "^^^S^irttiztmtxt, 



is easily reached by the gate just beyond the first farm on 

 the Kendal road. Cross two fields and the railway ; through 

 Droomer Stile farmyard, and we have arrived where there 

 are hundreds of spots well adapted for building sites. But 

 the statesmen of Westmorland, who are not themselves re- 

 markably in love with natural scenery, do not readily part 

 with land bequeathed to them by their fathers : they have 

 received it from a long line of ancestors, and they are deter- 

 mined to ' hand it foret' Such a failing, doubtless, does them 

 honour, but it is a pity that the same pious association which 

 forbids them to dispose of their property does not induce 

 them to improve it. There is no actual want in this favoured 

 district ; but nowhere in England are to be found so many 

 neglected homesteads as within view of the Langdale Pikes. 

 The roofless cottages are so numerous that the self-com- 

 placent tourist may imagine that they are suffered to remain 

 so for the sake of the picturesque. Unless a new dispen- 

 sation has recently commenced here, we shall have many 

 relics of this kind to notice on our way ; but far worthier of 

 our sketch-book is the view of Windermere Village, with its 

 guardian hill of Orrest Head, and the lake in front, stretch- 

 ing to the fine group of hills towards its head. After ramb- 

 ling on for a mile or two through fields and lanes, we join 

 the main road to Bowness. 



TO BOWNESS. 



Having pointed out the short walks and chief points of 

 attraction in the immediate vicinity of Windermere, we will 

 now conduct the traveller to Bowness, observing that the 

 walks which we have described, although nearer and more 

 readily approached from the former place, can be taken from 

 the latter, which is only distant from Windermere about a 



