232 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



ing habits, yet only require to be considerately dealt with in 

 order to be turned to useful account. 



Elleray was in truth, at the time I visited it, a poet's retreat. 

 Its relation to Windermere gave it command over the loveliest 

 portion of the scenery of that Queen of Lakes. It has been 

 described by Wilson himself as 



( ' Resting on the brow 

 (Beneath its sycamore) of Orrest-hill, 

 As if it smiled on Winder-mere below 

 Its green recesses and its islands still.' 



The sycamore flourishes green as ever, and the fairy dwelling 

 retains its joyous outlook. But it is in the hands of the stranger, 

 and its retirement, the sanctity of the spot, many of its sweetest 

 associations, are broken up by the disturbing contiguity of a 

 railway terminus. There was a green shady lane leading towards 

 Bowness, which in the autumnal dusk sparkled with glowworms, 

 as did its hedges at noon with haws and blackberries; there 

 was a hazel- copse crowning the slope, hung in its season with 

 clusters of nuts, and beyond it lay a swamp, forming a portion of 

 Applethwaite Common, which harboured snipes in abundance : 

 these, blent with recollections of sport and frolic, are all erased, 

 and, although unessential to the landscape, they were among the 

 treasures which surrounded the poet's summer dwelling. 



The period of the year at which I visited Elleray did not 

 encourage me to attempt angling from the boat, in the way it is 

 usually practised on Windermere, but along with my friend, the 

 Professor's eldest son, I took occasional rambles rod in hand up 

 and down the neighbouring becks. Troutbeck, as my diary re- 

 cords, was the subject of several visits. The Rothay and Brathay, 

 along with a portion of the river Derwent, etc., were tested, in 

 the course of a short pedestrian excursion, sketched out viva voce 

 by the Professor, TJver the Lake district. On the occasion of this 

 ramble the sport met with was very unsatisfactory, and tended 



