WHINLATTER. 129 



group, (the central group of the whole district,) 

 on the one hand, and the rich level of 

 Lorton Vale on the other, backed, in 

 favourable lights, by the Scotch mountains. This 

 spot is one on which to linger through a long sum- 

 mer day, pacing the sward, and choosing seats from 

 rock to rock, along the whole crest. The stranger 

 must now, however, take this brief survey, and hope 

 to come again. He has twelve miles to go to Kes- 

 wick ; and the early part of it is steep and slow. 

 The turn is to the right, at about a mile from 

 Scale Hill, leaving the Cockermouth road, which 

 traverses the Yale of Lorton. The higher he as- 

 cends, the more lovely are the views over that 

 vale which the traveller obtains, till at length the 

 Solway gleams in the sun, and the Scotch moun- 

 tains appear beyond. If he has good eyes, the 

 driver will point out to him, at a vast distance, the 

 famous old Lorton yew, appearing like a dark 

 clump, beside a white farmhouse. Wheu fairly 

 under Whin latter, six or seven miles 

 from Scale Hill, he cannot but admire, 

 — in one or the other sense of the word, — the 

 colouring of the hill itself, if the time be anywhere 

 from June to September. The gaudy hues of the 

 mingled gorse and heather are, at that season, unlike 

 any exhibition of colour we have seen elsewhere, — 

 exceeding even the far-famed American forests. As 

 the north-western vision vanishes, the south-western 

 opens ; and the vale of Keswick and Skiddaw in its 

 noblest aspect, with the lakes far below, looks finer 

 than ever. After passing through Braithwaite, he 

 soon recognises the road, and returns to Keswick 

 by the well-known bridge over the Derwent. 



