50 KIRKSTONE PASS. 



Proceeding with his tour, his road now meets 

 the one from Ambleside at a small public house 

 (the Traveller's Rest,) which the ordnance surveyors 

 have declared the highest inhabited house in Eng- 

 land : and thus it is labelled by a board over the 

 porch. In clear weather, the sea is seen hence, 

 and the thread of smoke from its steamers. The 

 head of Windermere lies like a pond below; the 

 little Blelham tarn, near Wray Castle, glitters 

 behind; and range beyond range of hiUs recedes 

 to the horizon. Near at hand, all is very vnld. 

 The Ambleside road winds up steeply between 

 grey rocks and moorland pasture, and dashing 



streams ; and the Kirkstone mountain 

 KIBK8TOHH jj^g proljably mists driving about its 



head. There is something wilder to 

 come, however, — the noted Kirkstone Pass, — the 

 great pass of the district. The descent begins 

 about a quarter of a mile beyond the house. Down 

 plunges the road, with rock and torrent on either 

 hand, and the bold sweeps of Coldfield and Scan- 

 dale Screes shutting in the pass; and the little 

 lake of Brothers' Water lying below, afar off 

 among the green levels ; and, closing in the whole 

 in front, the mass of Place Fell, — the other side 

 of which goes sheer down into Ullswater. The 

 stranger must not omit to observe near the head of 

 the pass, the fallen rock ridged like a roof, whose 

 form (like that of a miniature church) has given its 

 name to its precincts. All the way as he descends 

 to Brothers' Water, the openings on the Scandale 

 side (the left) charm his eye, — with their fissures, 

 precipices, green slopes and levels, and knolls in 

 the midst, crowned with firs. He passes through 



