1 70 ;Etom ©onie;t0n 



bridge. That is the Oxenfell road, by which he may return. 

 The direction now is almost straight forward, passing by a 

 farm-yard, into ^Jii^^ttlb^aite, — the dell which lies between 

 Wetherlam and Oxenfell. A stream dashes among rocks 

 below, while a road mounts the banks on either hand, pass- 

 ing through a wild scene, partially softened by plantations. 

 Vast heaps of blue stone show the extent to which slate^ 

 quarrgmg goes on : and if the traveller cares to see for him- 

 self what the works are like, he will not repent the enterprise. 

 There are chasms by the road-side near here which excite a 

 very uncommon sensation, when seen from the car or saddle : 

 — vast depths, with archways, and blue ledges where the 

 birds' nests show that the works are deserted. These quarries, 

 now empty, were once wrought in the old-fashioned ways. 

 It is worth while to see the modern appliances by which slate 

 is obtained and sent forth to supply the increasing demand. 

 Subteranean passages, vast domes, echoing recesses in the 

 blue rock, drips of water, sprouts of vegetation, the din of 

 men's mallets and cleavers, and the sight of their sinewy 

 forms, as they work, some in sunshine, some in shade, and 

 some in the yellow gleam of candles in the caverns, afford 

 a spectacle worth a traveller's notice. 



The rough road descends at last, through plantations and 

 over some boggy ground, to a stream which is one of the 

 feeders of the Brathay. This stream being forded, the road 

 ascends sharply for a short distance when the turn is 

 to the left, climbing the hill-side above Langdale Tarn, 

 and on to the high-lying valley which is the scene of the 

 Solitary's residence in Wordsworth's * Excursion.' In that 

 valley is ^lea W^axn with its one farm-house, — the deso- 

 lation described in the poem being still there. The road now 

 makes a steep and rough descent into Jl^angtiale at Wall End. 

 Few things in the region are finer than the head of Lang- 



