15^ T3f atfe at €T0nfeton» 



commencing at the Black Bull Inn. After passing the 

 pretty villa of Hollywath, the ground rises more rapidly, and 

 you soon reach the fell gate, through which you may pass, 

 taking the road to the left, which lies between a steep, 

 rocky fell-side and a high and dry stone wall, the gateways in 

 which afford delightful glimpses of the many beauties of the 

 vale and village. At the point where the wall ends, you 

 have in its place a deep rugged ravine, fenced by a row of 

 large boulders, along the left side of the narrow road, while 

 the beck with its hue of soap suds brawls and foams along 

 its jagged course at the bottom. About half way up the 

 Gill, you find a respectable cascade of about forty feet in 

 height, where the water, much broken by the irregularities 

 above, and by the ledge from which it falls, spreads itself 

 out like a large white apron ^gathered' a little at the 

 waist. A hundred yards higher is another force, and, higher 

 still, is a third, where the stream is split into three by two 

 sharp projecting rocks, and which, about half way down, 

 falls upon a sort of slanting shelf, whence, white as butter-milk, 

 it makes a second fall at right angles with the first, and alto- 

 gether, although it is of no great altitude, forms a very 

 interesting object of contemplation. 



' And now, occupying the upper end of an oblong basin, 

 which you have entered by a gap in the southern end, you 

 see * a little town ' of sheds, offices, workshops, and water- 

 wheels, presenting, with the clatter of machinery issuing con- 

 tinuously therefrom, a most astounding contrast to the silence 

 and solitude of the surrounding wilderness. These are the 

 works belonging to the extensive Copper ^^inm of Conis^ 

 ton. The mines themselves are of great antiquity, having 

 been worked by the Romans during their earliest occupation 

 of this country. There is good reason, therefore, to believe 

 they have been in operation, with greater or less success, for 



