93 FAIRPIELD. 



when the tall old man, with his staff, passes out 

 of sight into the cloud, or among the cresting 

 rocks, it is a striking thought that science has set 

 up a tabernacle in these wildernesses, and found a 

 priest among the shepherds. That old man has 

 seen and heard wonderful things : has trod upon 

 rainbows, and been waited upon by a dim retinue 

 of spectral mists. He has seen the hail and the 

 lightnings go forth as from under his hand; and 

 has stood in the sunshine, listening to the thunder 

 growling and the tempest bursting boueath his 

 feet. He well knows the silence of the hills, and 

 all the solemn ways in which that silence is broken. 

 The stranger, however, coming hither on a calm 

 summer-day, may well fancy that a silence like this 

 can never be broken. 



Looking abroad, what does he see ? The first 

 impression probably is of the billowy character of 

 the mountain -groups around and below 

 ™^mL^. ^^^- This is perhaps the most strik- 

 ing feature of such a scene to a novice ; 

 and the next is, the flitting character of the mists. 

 One ghostly peak after another seems to rise out 

 of its shroud ; and then the shroud winds itself 

 round another. Here the mist floats over a valley ; 

 there it reeks out of a chasm : here it rests upon a 

 green slope; there it curls up a black precipice. 

 The sunny vales below look like a paradise, with 

 their bright meadows, and waters, and shadowy 

 woods and little knots of villages. To the south, 

 there is the glittering sea ; and the estuaries of the 

 Leven and the Duddon, with their stretches of 

 yellow sands. To the east, there is a sea of hill- 

 tops. On the north, Ullswater appears, grey and 



