CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 67 



all is rock or loo<e stones up to the very brow, which lies so near 

 your way, that not above half the height of Helvellyn can be 



seen. 



Next I passed by the little chapel of Wiborn, out of which the 

 Sunday congregation were then issuing; soon after a beck near 

 Dunmeil-raise, when I entered Westmoreland a second time; and 

 now began to see Holmcrag, distinguished from its rugged neigh- 

 bours, not so much by its height as by the strange broken outlines 

 of its top, like some gigantic building demolished, and the stones 

 that composed it flung across each other in wild confusion. Just 

 be)ond it opens one of the sweetest landscaps that art ever attempt, 

 ed to imitate. The bosom of the mountains spreading here into a 

 broad bason discovers in the midst Grasmere- water; its margin is 

 hollowed into small bays, with bold eminences ; some of rock, 

 some of soft turf, that half-concealed, and vary the figure of the 

 little lake they command : from the shore, a low promontory 

 pushes itself far into the water, and on it stands a while village" 

 with the parish church rising in the midst of it: hanging inclosures, 

 corn fields, and meadows green as an emerald, with their trees and 

 hedges, and cattle, fill up the whole space from the edge of the 

 water ; and jnsr opposite to you is a large farm-house at the bottom 

 of a steep smooth lawn, embosomed in old woods, which climb 

 half-way up the mountain's side, and discover above them a broken 

 line of crags that crown the scene. Not a single red tile, no flaring 

 gentleman's house, or garden walls, break in upon the repose of 

 this little unsuspected paradise ; but all is peace, rusticity, and happy 

 poverty in its neatest most becoming attire. 



The road winds here over GrastuereJiill, whose rocks soon 

 conceal the water from your sight ; >et it is continued along behind 

 them, and, contracting itself to a river, communicates with Ridale. 

 water, another small lake, but of inierior s?ze and beauty ; it seems 

 shallow too, for lar^e patches of reeds appear pretty far within it. 

 Into this vale th- road descends. On the opposite banks large and 

 ancient woods mount up the hills; and just to the left of our \vay 

 stands Ridale hall, the family seat of Sir Michael Fleming, a large 

 old-fa*hi -ned lauric, surrounded with wood. Sir Michael is now 

 on his travels, and all this timber, far and wide, belongs to him. 

 Near the house rises a huge crag, called Ridale-head, which is 

 said to command a full view of Wynauder-mere, and i doubt it 



