dungeon ©ill 87 



is preparing. There are guides at the inn to accompany the 

 party ; the path is, however, well marked. After leaving the 

 new Inn and ascending for a short distance, a turn to the 

 ; right leads towards the stream. — In starting from Dungeon 

 Gill Hotel, the green path on the hill-side will be pointed 

 out ; and the traveller must take care not to make for the 

 waterfall he sees in front. The path he wants tends to the 

 left, till it reaches a fence and gate, when it turns sharply to 

 the right ; after which there is no possibility of losing the 

 way. It presently joins the stream from the force, which 

 leads up a dark fissure, — ^ dungeon ' and ' gill,' both mean- 

 ing a fissure. There is a well-secured ladder, by which 

 ladies easily ascend to the mouth of the chasm ; and, when 

 they have caught sight of the fall, they can please themselves 

 about scrambling further. There is the fall in its cleft, 

 tumbling and splashing, while the light ash, and the vegeta- 

 tion besides, is everlastingly in motion from the stir of the 

 air. Above, a bridge is made, high aloft, by the lodgment 

 of two blocks of rock in the chasm. The finest season for 

 visiting this force is in a summer afternoon. Then the sun 

 streams in obliquely, — a narrow, radient, translucent screen ; 

 itself lighting up the gorge, but half concealing the projec- 

 tions and waving ferns behind it. The way in which it con- 

 verts the sprays into sparks and many-coloured gems can be 

 believed only by those who have seen it. 



There are two ways home from this point, — down Lang- 

 dale to its junction with the Brathay Valley, or by High 

 Close, to Grasmere. We have little to observe about them, 

 — Langdale having been described at page 78, as seen 

 from High Close, and the Grasmere route at page 79. 

 Langdale chapel is a primitive hamlet, where the old charac- 

 ter of the district is preserved. The little chapel was rebuilt 

 in 1857-8, chiefly, we understand, by the munificence of two 



