LATRIGG. 113 



without longing" to follow the paths seen to wind 

 through the woods above the Greta. Southey in 

 his " Colloquies/' speaks of the scenery here as " of 

 the finest and most rememberable kind." " From 

 a jutting- isthmus, round which the tortuous river 

 twists, you look over its manifold windings, up the 

 water to Blencathra; down it, over a high and 

 wooded middle-ground, to the distant mountains 

 of Newlands, Causey Pike, and Grisedale." The 

 scenery of Latrigg, however, is treated of in con- 

 nexion with the ascent of Skiddaw; and, again, 

 the Druidical Temple is described at the beginning 

 of the ascent to Saddleback. The points of view 

 near Bassenthwaite are designated in the course of 

 that circuit ; and the high roads which traverse the 

 plain may speak for themselves. But the whole 

 range along the skirts- of Skiddaw, from Latrigg 

 to Bassenthwaite village, (which is eight miles 

 from Keswick), commands views so fine that the 

 stranger's attention should be specially drawn to it. 

 Southey declared, in his " Colloquies," that " the 

 best general view of Derwent Water is from the 

 terrace between Applethwaite and Milbeck, a little 

 below the former hamlet. The old roofs and chim- 

 neys of the hamlet/' he continues, " come finely 

 in the foreground, and the trees upon the Ormath- 

 waite estate give there a richness to the middle- 

 ground which is wanting in other parts of the 

 vale." From that terrace the traveller may return 

 by Latrigg, if he has come by the straight road 

 from Keswick : and the whole circuit is only seven 

 miles. But if he chooses to go on as far as the sum- 

 mit of Dod Fell, he will find himself abundantly 

 repaid. Dod Fell is an infant Skiddaw, nestling 



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