©'onfetan "y^Eater^ 163 



yacht is called), you proceed with all comfort and all 

 despatch on your voyage down the lake. Leaving the bay 

 in which stands the handsome steep-roofed edifice which 

 serves as a boat and summer house to the hotel, you round 

 the low gravelly point covered with native shrubs ; and then, 

 after noting at the back of it the enormous banks of fine 

 blue sand brought down by the beck from the copper mines, 

 deposited in the still waters of the lake, and afterwards 

 thrown up, by the storms of winter, in high ridges along 

 the low-lying shore ; — you turn your eyes northward to the 

 head of the lake, while fresh beauties come to view in con- 

 stant succession. Beyond, or above the "^^ScZ^aterfjeatJ, 

 stands the residence of Mr. Victor Marshall, a member 

 of the family of princely manufacturers of that name in 

 Leeds. It is surrounded by perhaps the finest demesne 

 in the lake district, if the most beautiful combination of 

 many of the elements of both natural and artificial loveliness 

 can establish its superiority ; for nowhere else will you have 

 seen wood and water, hill and valley, green sward and purple 

 heather, rugged crag and velvet-lawn, grey rock and bright 

 blossoming shrub, waving forest and spreading coppice, 

 brought under the eye at once in such magnificent proportion 

 and in such bewildering contrast. Over the western side of 

 these fair grounds of Monk Coniston Park you may note 

 the picturesquely rugged and broken summits of Holme 

 Fell and Raven Crag at the head of Yewdale — and, nearer 

 to you, but still more to the west, the wild, precipitous and 

 lofty range of Yewdale Crags ; over them the long ridge of 

 Henn Crag ; higher still the broad summit of Wetherlam ; 

 and, as you wind your way down the lake, the lofty undu- 

 lating chain of heights which connect this last with the Old 

 Man, now plainly visible in all his hoary grandeur and 

 magnificence. The eye turns next to the romantically-situated 



M 2 



