CASTLE HEAD. 107 



clefts of WaHabarrow Crag, since called the Lady's 

 Rake. Every where are there traces of the un- 

 happy family ; even in the sky, where the aurora 

 borealis is sometimes called to this day, Lord 

 Derwentwater's lights, because it was particularly 

 brilliant the night after his execution. 



The lake is about three miles long, and, at 

 its broadest part, a mile and a half wide. Its 

 waters are singularly clear, and its surface often 

 unruffled as a mirror. Then it reflects the sur- 

 rounding shores with marvellous beauty of effect, 

 — from the bare crest of the crag and peak of the 

 mountain, to the grassy knoll and overhanging 

 birch. Pike, trout, and perch abound in the lake ; 

 but not char, which requires deeper water. The 

 Floating Island, whose appearance is announced 

 in the newspapers at intervals of a few years, has 

 obtained more celebrity than it deserves. It is a 

 mass of soil and decayed vegetation, which rises 

 when distended with gases, and sinks again when 

 it has parted with them at the surface. Such is 

 the explanation given by philosophers of this piece 

 of natural magic, which has excited so much sen- 

 sation during successive generations. Sometimes 

 it comes up a mere patch, and sometimes measuring 

 as much as an acre. 



II. The first piece of advice given to strangers 

 is to go to Castle Head, or, as it is locally called, 

 Castlet. Castle Head is a wooded hill rising to 

 the left of the road from Keswick to Borrowdale, 

 and about a third of a mile from the town. One 

 footpath encompasses the hill, leading to a cpiarry 

 of fine stone, used in the best buildings in the 

 neighbourhood : but the other path is the interest- 



