128 J^scmt of ^airficlti 



of sight into the cloud, or among the cresting rocks, it is a 

 striking thought that science has set up a tabernacle in these 

 wildernesses, and formed a priest among the shepherds. 

 That old man has seen and heard wonderful things ; has trod 

 upon rainbows, and been waited upon by a dim retinue of 

 spectral mists. He has seen the hail and the lightnings go 

 forth as from under his hand ; and has stood in the sunshine 

 listening to the thunder growling and the tempest bursting 

 beneath his feet. He well knows the silence of the hills, 

 and all the solemn ways in which that silence is broken. 

 The stranger, however, coming hither on a calm summer-day, 

 may well fancy that a silence like this can never be broken. 

 Looking abroad, what does he see ? The first impression 

 probably is the billowy character of the mountain groups 

 around and below him. This is perhaps the most striking 

 scene to a novice ; and the next is, the flitting character of 

 the mists. One ghostly peak after another seems to rise out 

 of its shroud; and then the shroud winds itself round 

 another. Here the mist floats over the valley ; there it reeks 

 out of a chasm ; here it rests upon a green slope ; there it 

 curls up a black precipice. The sunny vales below look 

 like a paradise, with their bright meadows and waters, and 

 shadowy woods and little knots of villages. To the south 

 there is the glittering sea ; and the estuaries of the Leven 

 and the Duddon, with their stretches of yellow sands. To 

 the east, there is a sea of hill-tops. On the north, Ullswater 

 appears, grey and calm at the foot of the black precipices ; 

 and nearer may be traced the whole pass from Patterdale, 

 where Brothers' Water lies invisible from hence. The finest 

 point of the whole excursion is about the middle of the ciil- 

 de-sac, where, on the northern side, there are tremendous 

 precipices overlooking Deepdale and other sweet recesses 

 far below. Here, within hearing of the torrents which 



