'^xtmmn. 245 



TO BUTTERMERE AND CRUiMMOCK WATER, BY 

 BORROWDALE AND HONISTER PASS. 



(Tf the return journey be by the Vale of Newlands, 22 miles ; if by 



Scale Hill and Lorton Fell, 27 miles. The visit to Scale Force 4 miles 



additional. ) 



The drive to Buttermere by Honister Crag is the favourite 

 excursion from Keswick, and it is certainly one which the 

 stranger should by no means omit, embracing, as it does, 

 some of the finest scenery in the district. For the con- 

 venience of tourists, commodious waggonettes make this 

 circuit during the season; leaving Keswick at 10 a.m., 

 returning at 6 p.m., and thus affording the traveller a sojourn 

 of about three hours at Buttermere and Crummock. 



The route as far as Rosthwaite has already been described 

 (p. 237) : from whence it is a mile and a-half to ^eatoller* 

 After passing through the farmyard there, the road makes a 

 steep and rough ascent, by the side of a plunging and roaring 

 stream, to Buttermere Hawse. Everybody walks up the last 

 reaches of the ascent, — so steep and stony is the narrow 

 road, and so formidable its unfenced state. The traveller, 

 as he ascends, gradually loses sight of the farmstead, and the 

 broader levels until by degrees the mountains close in around 

 him. Just at the turn before sighting Honister Crag, the 

 last trace of Borrowdale, — in the form of a triangular bit 

 of green sward far below among the hills, — disappears, 

 and the Vale of Buttermere begins to open upon the eye. 

 The scene now before the traveller is one of great grandeur, 

 he is in a vast stony valley, where sheep and their folds, and 

 a quarryman's hut here and there, are the only signs of civi- 

 lization. There are no bridges over the stream — the infant 

 Cocker — which must be crossed many times ; and where 

 there are no stepping-stones, the pedestrian must wade. The 



