WATERSPOUT. ] 81 



moor at midnight, and carried down everything 

 that was lying loose all through the vale below, 

 and over a piece of arable land at the entrance, 

 where it actually peeled the whole surface, carrying 

 away the soil and the trees, and leaving the rocky 

 substratum completely bare. The soil was many 

 feet deep, and the trees full-grown. Then it laid 

 down what it brought, covering ten acres with the 

 rubbish. By the channel left, it appears that the 

 flood must have been five or six yards deep, and 

 a hundred yards wide. Among other pranks, it 

 rooted up a solid causeway, which was supported 

 by an embankment apparently as strong as the 

 neighbouring hills. The flood not only swept 

 away the whole work, but scooped out the entire 

 line for its own channel. The village of Bracken- 

 thwaite, which stood directly in its course, was 

 saved by being built on a stone platform, — a cir- 

 cumstance unknown to the inhabitants till they now 

 saw themselves left safe on a promontory, while 

 the soft soil was swept away from beside their very 

 doors, leaving a chasm where the flood had been 

 turned aside by the resistance of their rock. The 

 end of the matter was, that the flood poured into 

 the Cocker, which rose so as to lay the whole south- 

 western plain under water for a considerable time. 



On leaving Buttermere, and passing the very 

 small chapel (which yet is "quite big" compared 

 with the former one on the same site) the road up 

 Buttermere Haws to Newlands is seen ascending 

 to the left. The Lake of Buttermere is only a 

 mile and a quarter in length, and a little more than 

 half a mile in breadth. The mountains which 

 enclose it have been already named (p. 127.) The 



m 3 



