136 ASCENT OF SKIDDAW. 



while a more distant one comes into view. The 

 Irish Sea and the Isle of Man rise, and the Scotch 

 mountains show themselves marshalled on the hori- 

 zon. At the first summit, after a mile of craggy 

 ascent, steeper than the rest, the city of Carlisle 

 comes into view, with the coast and its little towns, 

 round to St. Bees, with the rich plains that lie be- 

 tween. But there is a higher poiut to be reached, 

 after an ascent of five hundred feet more ; and here 

 Derwent Water comes into view again. And how 

 much besides ! Few lakes are seen ; but the sea 

 of mountain-tops is glorious, — and the surround- 

 ing plains, — and the ocean beyond, — and land 

 again beyond that. In opposite directions, lie 

 visible, Lancaster Castle and the hills of Kirkcud- 

 bright, Wigton, and Dumfries. Lancaster Castle 

 and Carlisle Cathedral in the same landscape! 

 and Snowdon and Criffel nodding to each other ! 

 Ingleborough, in Yorkshire, looking at Skiddaw 

 over the whole of Westmorland that lies between ; 

 with the Isle of Man as a resting-place for the 

 glance on its way to Ireland ! St. Bees Head, 

 with the noiseless waves dashing against the red 

 rock, being almost within reach as it were ! And, 

 as for Scawfell, Helvellyn, and Saddleback, they 

 stand up like comrades, close round about. Charles 

 Lamb was no great lover of mountains : but he 

 enjoyed what he saw. " O ! its fine black head/' 

 he wrote of Skiddaw, " and the bleak air atop of 

 it, with a prospect of mountains all about, making 

 you giddy ; and then Scotland afar off, and the 

 border-countries, so famous in song and ballad ! 

 It is a day that will stand out like a mountain, I 

 am sure, in my life ! " " Bleak " the air is indeed 



