182 HONISTER CltAG. 



torrent that will be observed flowing down the 

 steep into the lake is called — as others in the dis- 

 trict are — Sourmilk Ghyll : and it issues from 

 Bleaberry or Burtness Tarn, on the side of Red 

 Pike. The pretty domain near the margin of the 

 lake is Hasness. Then comes Gatesgarth, — the 

 farmstead whence the road to Scarf 



GATESGABTH. /-^ . . , , l • 1 l 



Gap is taken, by which, as we have 

 told, London gentlemen and Kendal ladies have 

 run into such extreme danger. From Gatesgarth 

 begins one of the wildest bits of road in the district. 

 It climbs Buttermere Vale, by an ascent at first 

 gradual, and latterly extremely steep, to the base 

 of Honister Crag. It is a vast stony valley, where 

 sheep and their folds, and a quarryman's hut here 

 and there, are the only signs of civilization. There 

 are no bridges over the stream — the infant Cocker 

 — which must be crossed many times ; and where 

 there are no stepping-stones, the pedestrian must 

 wade. Everybody walks up the last reaches of the 



ascent, — so steep and stonv is the 



HONISTEB CBAG. T ■, P . -, , X . , 



narrow road, and so iormidable its un- 

 fenced state. The dark, stupendous, almost per- 

 pendicular, Honister Crag frowns above ; and a 

 the traveller, already at a considerable height, looks 

 up at the quarry men in the slate-quarries near the 

 summit, it almost takes his breath away to see 

 them hanging like summer-spiders quivering from 

 the eaves of a house. 



These quarry men are a hardy race, capable of 

 feats tff strength which are now rarely heard of 



elsewhere. No heavily-armed knight, 

 «uab L rimek. wno ever came here to meet the Scot 



— and there were such encounters on 



