RYDAL MOUNT. 83 



the chapel, is reached, the stranger must alight, 

 and ascend it. He is ascending Rydal 

 Mount; and Wordsworth's house is 

 near the top of the hill, — within the modest gate 

 on the left. By the kind permission of the lady 

 now residing there, strangers may obtain entrance 

 to the poet's garden on two days in the week, 

 Tuesday and Friday. There they may stand on 

 the moss-grown eminence — (like a little Roman 

 camp) — in front of the house, whence they may 

 view the whole valley of the Rothay to the utmost 

 advantage. Windermere in the distance is — as 

 Wordsworth used to say — a light thrown into the 

 picture, in the winter season, and, in summer, a 

 beautiful feature, changing with every hue in the 

 sky. The whole garden is indeed a true poet's 

 garden ; its green hollows, its straight terraces 

 bordered with beds of periwinkle, and tall foxgloves, 

 purple and white, — the white being the poet's 

 favourite; and the summer-house, lined with fir- 

 cones ; and then the opening of the door, which 

 discloses the other angle of the prospect, — Rydal 

 Pass, with the lake lying below. Every resident 

 in the neighbourhood thinks the situation of his own 

 house the best : but most agree that Wordsworth's 

 comes next. We should say that Wordsworth's 

 comes next to those at Miller Brow, but for the 

 disadvantage of the long and steep ascent to it. 

 The ascent might be to some a serious last stage 

 of a walk on a hot summer day; but the privileges 

 of the spot, when once reached, are almost incom- 

 parable. • 



The guide to the Rydal Falls will by this time 

 have presented herself, and the tourist must visit 



v 2 



