224 HARD ALE. 



keep any sort of boat. His lordship's boats are 

 said to be procurable for the asking ; but the pre- 

 liminaries are a hindrance. The walk along the 

 lake- side is, however, easy and agreeable enough. 

 The road skirts the western bank. The crags 

 which are sprinkled or heaped about the head of 

 the lake are very fine. They jut out from the 

 mountain-side, or stand alone on the green slopes, 

 or collect into miniature mountain-clusters, which 

 shelter tiny dells, whence the sheep send forth their 

 bleat. There is a white house conspicuous at the 

 head of the lake which is not the inn, however the 

 tired traveller may wish it were. The inn at Mar- 

 dale Green is full a mile from the water ; and 

 sweet is the passage to it, if the walker be not 

 too weary. The path winds through the levels, 

 round the bases of the knolls, past the ruins of the 

 old church, and among snug little farms, while at 

 one end of the dale is the lake, and the other is 

 closed in by the passes to Kentmere and Sleddale ; 

 and the great pikes tower on either hand. The 

 stream which gushes here and pauses there, as it 

 passes among rough stones or through a green 

 meadow, comes down from Small Water, reinforced 

 by a brook from Blea Water on High Street, 

 which joins the other a little above Mardale. 



The hostess at Mardale Green Inn, (the Dun 

 Bull) will make her guests comfortable with homely 

 food and a clean bed; and the host 

 will, it necessary, act as a guide up the 

 passes. The small green level which from the 

 mountains looks such a mere speck, is of some im- 

 portance at a distance. It actually sends 3,000 

 pounds of butter weekly to Manchester by the 



