100 VALE OF ST. JOHN. 



another mystery just behind, under the Armboth 

 Fells, — a haunted house. Lights are seen there 

 at night, the people say ; and the bells ring ; and 

 just as the bells all set off ringing, a large dog is 

 seen swimming across the lake. The plates and 

 dishes clatter; and the table is spread by unseen 

 hands. That is the preparation for the ghostly 

 wedding feast of a murdered bride, who comes up 

 from her watery bed in the lake to keep her terrible 

 nuptials. There is really something remarkable, 

 and like witchery, about the house. On a bright 

 moonlight night, the spectator who looks towards 

 it from a distance of two or three miles, sees the 

 light reflected from its windows into the lake ; and, 

 when a slight fog gives a reddish hue to the light, 

 the whole might easily be taken for an illumination 

 of a great mansion. And this mansion seems to 

 vanish as you approach, — being no mansion, but a 

 small house lying in a nook, and overshadowed by 

 a hill. The bridge being crossed, another bit of 

 lane leads out upon the high-road near the clean 

 little inn, the King^s Head, and within view of the 

 Vale of St. John. 



One would like to know how often the " Bridal 

 of Triermain^^ has been read within that vale. 

 The Castle Rock, in its disenchanted 

 condition, is a prominent object in 

 approaching the vale from Legber- 

 thwaite, or by the road just described ; and there 

 are lights and gloomy moments in which it looks 

 as like as may be to a scene of witchery, — now 

 engrossing the sunshine when the range to which 

 it belongs is all vin shadow ; and now perversely 

 gloomy, because there is a single cloud in the sky. 



VALE OF 

 ST. JOHN. 



