ESK. 107 



summits are called ' Hows ' ; and the small streams receive the 

 name of ' Beck/ The name of the river is Celtic, but the greater 

 part of the local names are Teutonic. The Esk flows in a syn- 

 clinal depression of the strata, and from its head, 500 feet above 

 the sea, to its mouth is a succession of pleasing and romantic 

 scenery which only the want of roads prevents from being much 

 resorted to. Entering the Esk and varying its scenery are many 

 short lateral rivulets, the most considerable being on the south 

 side. In the highest of these, Baysdale, darkened by pines in the 

 lower part, was a retired abbey ; Westerdale, a forked valley, 

 succeeds ; then the fine extended hollow of Danby Dale ; next, 

 the two pretty and picturesque dales of Fryop ; then, neglecting 

 some small streams, we come to the narrow and at the lower end 

 rugged Glaizedale. The expansive and pleasing hollow of Goad- 

 land succeeds, and then the woody Iburndale, and the equally 

 umbrageous glen of Cock Mill Beck. 



But Eskdale itself deserves further notice. Leaving its sum- 

 mit, and the bold hills between which it looks through Kildale 

 into Cleveland, we descend with a cheerful rivulet through a 

 remarkably pretty rural tract called Commondale, where abun- 

 dance of trees, neat farms and cottages, curiously varied ground, 

 and a stream winding in a thousand curvatures among narrow 

 meadows and corn-fields, make pleasing home scenes, often com- 

 pleted by the brown and purple hills which range above all. 

 Below this scene we come upon the old elevated mound of Castle- 

 ton, a feudal stronghold, if indeed it be not a relic of earlier 

 oppression. A mile lower down, on the same south side of the 

 valley, is what remains of Danby Castle, also elevated above 

 the valley. The dullest part of Eskdale succeeds, but changes 

 on approaching Glaizedale to scenes of picturesque and uncom- 

 mon beauty. The river is in fact barred from a direct course 

 by cross ridges of sandstone and shale, through which its deep 

 and winding channel is cut. Through the woods which cover 

 the greater part of the surface the shale peeps out in high dark 

 cliffs, and here and there white crags of gritstone appear on the 



