IN WORDSWORTH'S COUNTRY 155 



reach, a wire fence well up on the top that divides 



some sheep ranges, pass through a gate, and have 



a mile yet to the highest ground in front of you ; 



but you could traverse it in a buggy, it is so smooth 



and grassy. The grass fails just before the summit 



is reached, and the ground is covered with small 



fragments of the decomposed rock. The view is 



impressive, and such as one likes to sit down to 



and drink in slowly, — a 



" Grand terraqueous spectacle, 

 From centre to circumference, unveiPd." 



The wind was moderate and not cold. Toward 

 Ulleswater the mountain drops down abruptly many 

 hundred feet, but its vast western slope appeared 

 one smooth, unbroken surface of grass. The fol- 

 lowing jottings in my notebook, on the spot, pre- 

 serve some of the features of the scene: "All the 

 northern landscape lies in the sunlight as far as 

 Carlisle, 



"A tumultuous waste of huge hilltops;" 

 not quite so severe and rugged as the Scotch moun- 

 tains, but the view more pleasing and more exten- 

 sive than the one I got from Ben Venue. The 

 black tarns at my feet, — Keppel Cove Tarn one of 

 them, according to my map, — how curious they 

 look ! I can just discern the figure of a man mov- 

 ing by the marge of one of them. Away beyond 

 Ulleswater is a vast sweep of country flecked here 

 and there by slowly moving cloud shadows. To 

 the northeast, in places, the backs and sides of the 

 mountains have a green, pastoral voluptuousness, so 



