antr ^artifenott to "^SSTasttoater^ 143 



St0nea at the top, where three counties meet, they will step 

 into Lancashire, in order to leave it for Cumberland at 

 Cockley Beck Bridge, within three miles further on. We are 

 glad that a spirited citizen of Ambleside, to whom his neigh- 

 bours are under great obligations, has erected a stone pillar 

 at the spot where the shire stones are, that the Junction of 

 counties may not be overlooked — as it easily might be before 

 — by the unobservant traveller. Young tourists, who happen 

 to have long limbs, may enjoy the privilege of being in three 

 counties at once, by setting their feet on two of the three 

 stones, and resting their hands on the third The stream 

 which is now on the right, divides Lancashire from Cumber- 

 land ; and Westmorland is left behind. 



We know nothing wilder in the district than the next two 

 miles. These are the desolate hills in which the ^IDutitJon 

 and the E^fe take their rise ; and ©Todtleg ^eck is the spot 

 where the Duddon must be left, to cross over to the Esk. 

 There is a farm-house near the bridge at the bottom, where 

 horses can be refreshed, while travellers sit down by the 

 stream to dinner. 



A melancholy and harassed traveller once took this way, 

 whose adventure is still talked over in Eskdale and Borrovv- 

 dale. A party of tourists, among whom were two sisters, 

 were on the heights, intending to cross Esk Hause into 

 Borrowdale, and to spend the night at Seathwaite, — the 

 first settlement there. Now there is, as we have seen, another 

 Seathwaite on the Duddon; and mistakes frequently arise 

 between them. On Esk Hause, one of the ladies lost sight 

 of her party behind some of the rocks scattered among the 

 tarns there, and took a turn to the right instead of the left. 

 A shepherd of whom she enquired her way to Seathwaite 

 pointed down the Duddon Valley ; and that way she went 

 till she found herself at Cockley Beck, when the old shep- 



