LAKE WINDERMERE 251 



over a comparatively long period, attained the end 

 in view good flesh rapidly laid on and in the right 

 places. But these picked specimens are still too much 

 in the nature of happy accidents, purchased sometimes 

 at the cost of other qualities which the workaday farmer 

 has to consider ; the general average still shows plenty 

 of scope for improvement. 



We had one look more at the beautiful garden set on 

 a gentle southward slope towards the quiet waters of the 

 bay, where flourish in careless luxuriance many southern 

 shrubs which other people in less favoured climates toil 

 to keep alive as struggling specimens, and then took our 

 way towards the hills. On the shores of the estuary of 

 the Leven we saw one of the many mosses now being 

 slowly reclaimed by cutting out the peat before begin- 

 ning some sort of warping process ; round Morecambe 

 Bay there are great areas where the flat expanses of 

 sand which have given the bay its sinister reputation are 

 exchanged near the river channels for mud and ooze, 

 haunts of wild-fowl and seabirds or at the best only 

 occasional sheep, which might be converted into produc- 

 tive land. The approach to Windermere from the south 

 forms one of those serene visions which move like a sym- 

 phony of Mozart's ; there is nothing terrific nor exciting, 

 the river is set in wood and rocks, fern and heather, in 

 a succession of quiet vistas until it opens out into 

 the wide waters of the lake itself, when at last we 

 attain to a vision of the mountains Bow Fell and 

 the Scawfell Pikes, to recall the more austere entrances 

 into this hallowed land. The underwood upon the 

 lower slopes of the hills is perhaps more important 

 than the limited area of farming land ; it is cut over 

 every fifteen years or so, and yields hurdles, barrel 

 hoops, charcoal for the powder mills, clog soles and 

 bobbins, for the turning of which a few mills still 

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