264 SPRTNGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



day-time; I wished for the moon, but she was dark to me and 

 silent, 



Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. 



Oct. 4. I walked to Crow-park, now a rough pasture, once a 

 glade of ancient oak&, whose large roots still remain on the ground, 

 but nothing has sprung from them. If one single tree had remained, 

 this would have been an unparalleled spot ; and Smith judged right, 

 when he took his print of the lake from hence, for it is a gentle 

 eminence, not too high, on the very margin of the water, and com. 

 mandmg it from end to end, looking full into the gorge of Borrow, 

 dale. I prefer it even to Cockshut-hill which lies beside it, and to 

 which I walked in the afternoon ; it is covered with young trees both 

 sown and planted, oak, spruce, Scotch-fir, &c.all which thrive won- 

 del fully. 1 here is an easy ascent to the top^ and the view far pre- 

 ferable to that on Castle- hill (which you remember) because this is 

 lower and nearer to the lake: for I find all points, that are much 

 ele\ated, spoil the beauty of the valley, and make its parts, which 

 are not large, look poor and diminutive. While I was here a little 

 shower fell, red clouds came inarching up the hills from the cast, 

 and part of a bright rainbow seemed to rise along the side of Castle, 

 hill. 



From hence I got to the Parsonage a little before sun-set, and 

 saw in my glass a picture, that if 1 could transmit to you, and fix it 

 in all the softness of its living colours, would fairly sell for a thou- 

 sand pounds. This is the sweetest scene I can yet discover in point 

 of pastoral beauty ; the rest are in a sublimer style. 



Oct. 5. I walked through the meadows and corn-fields to the Der- 

 went, and crossing it went up How-hill; it looks along Bassingth wait- 

 water, and sees at the same time the course of the river, and a part 

 of the upper-lake, with a full view ot Skiddaw ; then I took my way 

 through Portingskall village to the Park, a hill so called, covered 

 entirely with wood ; it is all a mass of crumbling slate. Passed 

 round its foot between the trees and the edge of the water, and 

 came to a peninsula that juts out into the lake, and looks along it 

 both ways ; in front rises Walla-crag and Castle-hill, the town, the 

 road to Penrith, Skiddaw, and Saddleback. Returning, met a 

 a brisk and cold north-eastern blast that ruffled all the surface of 

 the lake, and made it rise in little waves that broke at the foot of 



