ROAD-SIDE INTERESTS. 185 



am sure there must be many such, when I call 

 to mind the charm of immortal verse, and that 

 hereabouts was the abode of the charmer. 



PISCATOR. I will attend to your request ; for 

 what is pleasanter than to relate to another, 

 a friend, what is interesting to oneself ? I may 

 begin even on starting. You see how good this 

 turnpike road is leading to Eydal and Grras- 

 mere, and yet it is little beyond the memory of 

 man when it was first made passable for car- 

 riages, or even carts. A worthy yeomen of the 

 former place has told me that he knew the 

 labourer, who was one of those first employed 

 in making a cart-road between Grasmere and 

 Ambleside, a man who died only about fifteen 

 years ago ; and, in Clark's account of the district, 

 written little more than sixty years ago, he 

 describes how, before the turnpike road was in 

 being, a causeway was begun between Eydal 

 Hall and Ambleside, not by means of ordinary 

 labour, but by that of schoolboys and their 

 master. Every Thursday and Saturday after- 

 noon Mr. Bell, the master, and his scholars 

 gave themselves to the work, they gathering 

 and bringing the stones, he paving with them. 



AMICUS. What you mention is indicative of a 



