164 ^oniston TiSfater* 



village, one part of which is scattered over the face of the 

 declivity, while another nestles at the feet of the steep, 

 craggy hills, wonderfully dispersed, as you see, — * here 

 a scattering and there a clustering, as in the starry heavens,' 

 — each separate detachment, whether consisting of one or 

 many houses, having its separate designation, but the whole, 

 taken together constituting the village of Church Coniston. 



On the Monk Coniston, or eastern shore, you may note 

 ^ent J^otige, where the laureate Hved, How Head, Lane 

 Head, Bank Ground, where one of the monks of Furness 

 found a home, before the ' thing called the Reformation ' 

 occurred, the farm of Townend, once occupied by the eldest 

 daughter of Wonderful Walker, the low-roofed dwelling 

 called Coniston Bank, and, finally the appropriately so- 

 called villa of ^tanttaociti, formerly the residence of the 

 foremost hand in England in the beautiful art of wood 

 engraving, then of Gerald Massey, the poet, and now of 

 John Ruskin. 



Reverting to the western, or Church Coniston shore, 

 nearly opposite to Brantwood, in the apex or, to speak 

 nautically, the bight of its own noble bay, between a row of 

 lofty sycamores and the wide spread woods of the old park, 

 stands ©ottiston ^Kall, for a long time the seat of the 

 ancient family of Le Fleming. It is now, a farm-house, with 

 a considerable portion of the old house removed — the ban- 

 queting hall, in which, of old, knightly revellers swallowed 

 * potations pottle deep ' in honour of high-born ladies, being 

 converted into a barn, and a very commodious barn too. 

 The most striking feature of the hall now is its massive ivy- 

 clad chimneys. 



Meanwhile the Gondola glides onward, and carries you 

 rapidly down the ever-narrowing lake. On the eastern, or 

 left side, the natural wood, namely hazel copse studded with 



