'^Malk^. 229 



most enjoyable, and that the fall, although perhaps wanting 

 the solitary wildness of some others in the district, is very 

 pretty and interesting. It is often visited when making a 

 circuit of Derwentwater by land, and few strangers who 

 row on the lake fail to call ; but we give it as one of the 

 pleasant, moderate walks from our head-quarters at Keswick. 



GREAT WOOD. 

 (The shortest circuit is about three miles. ) 



Since Gray's time, a charming walk has been created, for 

 which the public ought to be very grateful to the owners of 

 the Derwentwater property. Gray estimated the perpendi- 

 cular part of the Wallow Crags to be four hundred feet in 

 height, (and he was not far wrong), adding that the 

 country people believed it to be much more. From the 

 base of that prodigious wall, the bit of forest called ©teat 

 ";ti5f 0Ot» slopes down to the road, and in some parts, down 

 to the lake. Through Great Wood winding paths are now 

 cleared; and to walk in them in spring and autumn, — 

 or indeed at any season when weather will permit, — is 

 as rich a treat as can be desired. In one season there 

 are the early wild-flowers, the sprouting trees, and the 

 wood-pigeons and other birds, pairing and building ; and in 

 another, there is the squirrel, amidst the dropping acorns 

 and hazel nuts. In winter, the robin hops among the frosted 

 leaves in the path ; and there are broader glances of the lake 

 and the opposite heights through the leafless trees. There 

 are waterfalls always within hearing ; for almost every cleft 

 and channel in the crags has its streamlet, ever busy in 

 making its way to the lake. 



There are two or three entrances to these wood-paths 

 from the Borrowdale road, and a pleasant way home by the 



