BLEA TAEN. 37 



while a road mounts the banks on either hand, amidst a wild 

 scene, a little softened by partial plantations. Vast heaps of blue 

 stones show the scale on which slate-quarrying goes on : and if the 

 traveller pleases to see for himself what the works are like, he will 

 not repent the enterprise. There are chasms by the road-side 

 hereabouts which excite a very uncommon sensation, as seen from 

 the car or the saddle : — vast depths, with dark archways, and blue 

 ledges where the birds' nests show that the works are deserted. 

 These empty quarries were wrought in the old-fashioned ways. It 

 is worth while to see the modern appliances by which slate is 

 obtained and sent forth in proportion to the enlarging demand. 

 Subterranean passages, vast domes, echoing recesses in the blue 

 rock, with drips of water, sprouts of vegetation, the din of the 

 men's mallets and cleavers, and the sight of their sinewy forms, 

 as they work, some in sunshine, some in shade, and some in the 

 yellow gleam of candles in the caverns, afford a spectacle worth a 

 traveller's notice. 



The rough road descends at last, through plantations and over 

 some boggy ground, to a stream which is one of the feeders of the 

 Brathay. This stream being forded, the road ascends sharply to 

 join that from Skelwith, and passing the Colwith waterfall on the 

 way to Langdale Tarn. This is the road now to be taken, as it 

 climbs the hill-side above the tarn, and leads to the high-lying 

 valley which is the scene of the Solitary's residence in Words- 

 worth's " Excursion." In that valley is Blea Tarn, and the one 

 farm-house, and the desolation described in the poem, with the 

 single difference that large plantations have arisen since the poem 

 was written. The road makes a steep and rough descent into 

 Langdale at Wall End; and few things in the region are finer 

 than the head of Langdale, as seen from this height. The dale is 

 described elsewhere. The traveller can issue from it in various 

 directions. If he is merely making an excursion from Coniston, 

 he will turn to the right at the opening of Langdale, passing 

 Elterwater, returning either by Colwith Force, or on the other 

 side of Oxenfell to that which he skirted on his way forth, and 

 coming out into Yewdale. The whole circuit is about sixteen 

 miles. 



The Oxenfell road is a very favourite one. It is not as a whole 

 so interesting or beautiful as that which we have described ; but 

 there is one view which should not be missed. It is seen by taking 

 the road to the left on arriving at the head of Yewdale, and coming 

 over Tarn How. This road is very steep j and at one point of it 

 the whole length of the lake comes suddenly into view. Pursuing 

 this track, the traveller finds himself in the high-road, about half 



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