74 "yM'mbermere to ^es^ick 



There is a full view or ^g^al ^all from a point a little 

 further on, and a nearer peep of it just before entering 

 the little village. ^gtial jEElount, the home of Words- 

 worth, lies all but hidden by a mass of foliage at the summit 

 of a well-shaded avenue which slopes somewhat steeply- 

 down to the main-road. Another bend, and a very pretty 

 picture of the mere itself is before us, the shore of which the 

 road skirts for its entire length, under the bare precipices of 

 ^ab ^car» In a small white cottage by the road-side, 

 Hartley Coleridge lived and died. The coach sweeps round 

 a turn in the road, and Grasmere bursts suddenly into sight. 

 The scene now presented to view is very different from the 

 last. Not only is the sheet of water more regular in outline 

 than Rydal, but its surroundings are widely different; in- 

 stead of broken rocky declivities, imposing rather from their 

 ruggedness than their height, we have a valley shut in on all 

 sides by long grassy slopes, for the most part smooth and 

 rounded in outline, but towering up into some of the loftiest 

 mountains of the district. The isolated hill of peculiar form, 

 in front, beneath which the village lies, is Helm Crag, and 

 on its summit are the rocks known as the Lion and the 

 Lamb. To the left is the entrance to Easedale, one of the 

 loveliest of English glens. On the other side the eye travels 

 along the Keswick road, stretching over Dunmail Raise, — 

 a pass more than 700 feet above sea-level, flanked by Seat 

 Sandal on the right and Steel Fell on the left. Both of 

 these are lofty mountains, rising some 2,000 feet above the 

 pass. The march between Westmorland and Cumberland 

 runs along the water shed. Here, also, is the cairn beneath 

 which slumber the remains of brave King Dunmail and the 

 greater part of his gallant host. The Raise is immortalized, 

 not only in the well-known story of the last King of Cum- 

 bria, but in the local proverb, ^ Nout good iver kom ower 't 



