INTRODUCTION 



By the Right Hon. J. W. LOWTHER, M.P. 



That portion of Cumberland and Westmorland, 

 which is popularly known as the Lake District, 

 is the holiday ground of a great number of 

 persons who delight in its splendid scenery of 

 mountain, wood and lake, who enjoy roaming on 

 foot over its uplands, climbing its peaks, driving 

 in motor or charabanc along its sinuous valleys, 

 rowing or sailing on its lakes, and sketching or 

 photographing its picturesque views, which present 

 themselves to even the most inartistic eye. But 

 these folk belong to the family of " Hirundinidse " 

 — swallows — they are summer visitants. 



To my mind, the Lake Country, always beauti- 

 ful, is more beautiful at the other three seasons of 

 the 3^ear. In the spring and autumn the grasses 

 and mosses of the upper slopes and of the smooth 

 round shoulders, the bracken of the lower slopes, 

 the larch woods creeping up from the valleys, and 

 the emerald green of the lush meadows present 

 finer contrasts of colour and more variety of shade 

 and tone than the monotonous green of summer ; 

 whilst in winter the snow-capped mountains look 

 higher and grander and more inaccessible, the 



