liOTJGHKIGG 



TAEM". 



LOUGHRIGG TARN AND LAN GD ALE. 75 



liis eye. It is more likely, however, to be rippled 

 by some breeze, and to show how deeply blue, or 

 darkly grey, these mountain tarns may 

 be. This is Loughrigg Tarn, well 

 known to all readers of Wordsworth, 

 and consecrated also by the genius of Wilson. At 

 some little distance beyond it, the stranger must 

 diverge from his road to visit High Close, and see 

 the view which is reputed the finest in Westmorland. 

 He may leave his car where the road to High Close 

 ascends to the left, and walk past the house at the 

 top. He will find a bench placed so as 



HIGH CLOSE. 1 • !• I J 1 i n 11 -i 



to indicate the most lavourabJe point 

 and there he is ! overlooking " the finest view in 

 Westmorland." To the extreme right, Bowfell 

 closes in the Langdale Valley, the head of which 

 is ennobled by the swelling masses of the Pikes. 

 A dark cleft in the nearer one is the place where 

 the celebrated Dungeon Ghyll Force is plunging 

 and foaming, beyond the reach of eye or ear. He 

 can gather from this station, something of the 

 character of Langdale. It has levels, here expand- 

 ing, there contracting; and the stream winds among 

 them from end to end. There is no lake : and the 

 mountains send out spurs, alternating or meeting, 

 so as to make the levels sometimes circular and 

 sometimes winding. The dwellings are on the 

 rising grounds which skirt the levels; and this, 

 together with the paving of the road below, shows 

 that the valley is subject to floods. The houses, 

 of grey stone, each on its knoll, with a canopy of 

 firs and sycamores above it, and ferns scattered all 

 around, and ewes and lambs nestling near it, — 

 these primitive farms are cheerful and pleasant 



