BIRKEIt MOOR. 157 



crossing at Ulpha Kirk, and getting- upon the 

 moor that way. As soon as the enclosures are past, 

 up springs the lark, and freely run the rills, and 

 keen is the air; and ghost-like are the mountains 

 that appear by degrees above the high foreground 

 of the moor. It is a rare pleasure in the Lake Dis- 

 trict to meet with the lark. It is only on a very 

 wide expanse of moorland that it can happen ; for 

 in the valleys the birds of prey allow no songsters. 

 The eagles are gone (or nearly), and a few ravens 

 are left among the crags ; but there are hawks 

 domineering in every vale ; so that those who 

 would hear the lark must go out to such places as 

 Birker Moor. The mountain-group in front is that 

 which has been remarked upon before as the centre 

 of the region ; the lofty nucleus whence the vales 

 diverge (as Wordsworth observes, after Green) 

 " like the spokes of a wheel. " Scawfell is the 

 highest ; and the whole line, from that point to 

 Hardknot, is very fine in all lights. The dark 

 basiu formed in the midst of the group will be 

 observed : there Wast Water lies. 



On the right, a rude new road at length appears, 



tending towards a wooded ravine. That ravine is 



Stanley Grhyll, and at its head is the 



STAGEY GHTLL. ^fetf^ rp^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 



farmhouse of Dalegarth ; and there perhaps, or in 

 the glen, the party from Fell Foot may be found to 

 have arrived first. 



The Stanley Grhyll fall has much the character of 

 Ara Force; and the immediate surroundings may 

 perhaps be rivalled by other waterfalls in the dis- 

 trict. But the glen itself is indisputably the finest 

 in the region ; and it is scarcely possible to say too 



