42 "^^^M'alk torn "yiZS^^inbennere* 



leave the little hamlet of ©^oltl^ouse to the left. The low 

 building with its one window, like an eye peeping over the 

 wall, is the Friends' meeting-house, and is of early date : 

 facing you is their burial-ground, planted and strongly walled 

 round, known locally as * The Sepulchre.' 



A round pond at the narrow end of the lake, connected 

 with it by a narrow creek, exhibits a strange phenomenon. 

 It has a floating island, — not like that on Derwentwater, 

 which is a mass of mud and vegetable tangle, — but actually 

 bearing trees; and this island has been carried by strong 

 winds from one side to the other. A local poetess assures 

 us it was a favourite resort of the faries : 



* Nor can I, Esthwaite ! say farewell, 

 Ere of thy floating Isle I tell, 

 Where elvish fays and faries dwell.* 



The name of the pond is Priest's Pot : a fact which some 

 explain by a tradition that a priest was drowned there ; and 

 another by a superstition of its holding about as much as a 

 thirsty priest would like to drink, if the liquor were suffi- 

 ciently good. The probability, however, is that it acquired 

 the name of Priest's Spot, or Pot, from being appropriated 

 as a fish preserve for the Furness monks at Hawkshead Hall, 

 the picturesque and ivied archway of which, is passed on the 

 road to Coniston. 



About midway along the lake is a yew tree, often mistaken 

 for the tree under which Wordsworth rested and studied when 

 a schoolboy at Hawkshead : the real relic was cut down 

 some years since, in consequence of cattle having been poi- 

 soned by eating the cuttings from it. 



Lakebank is a pretty place ; and further on Lakefield, at 

 ^H^car Satoreg, commands, perhaps, the best view in the val- 



