136 ASCENT OF SKIDDAW. 



while a more distant one comes into view. The 

 Irish Sea and the Isle of Man rise, and the Scotch 

 mountains show themselves marshalled on the hori- 

 zon. At the first summit, after a mile of craggy- 

 ascent, steeper than the rest, the city of Carlisle 

 comes into view, with the coast and its little towns, 

 round to St. Bees, with the rich plains that lie be- 

 tween. But there is a higher point to be reached, 

 after an ascent of five hundred feet more ; and here 

 Derwent Water comes into view again. And how 

 much besides ! Few lakes are seen ; but the sea 

 of mountain-tops is glorious, — and the surround- 

 ing plains, — and the ocean beyond, — and land 

 again beyond that. In opposite directions, lie 

 visible, Lancaster Castle and the hills of Kirkcud- 

 bright, Wigton, and Dumfries. Lancaster Castle 

 and Carlisle Cathedral in the same landscape ! 

 and Snowdon and Criffel nodding to each other! 

 Ingleborough, in Yorkshire, looking at Skiddaw 

 over the whole of Westmorland that lies between j 

 with the Isle of Man as a resting-place for the 

 glance on its way to Ireland ! St. Bees Head, 

 with the noiseless waves dashing against the red 

 rock, being almost within reach as it were ! And, 

 as for Scawfell, Helvellyn, and Saddleback, they 

 stand up like comrades, close round about. Charles 

 Lamb was no great lover of mountains : but he 

 enjoyed what he saw. " O ! its fine black head," 

 he wrote of Skiddaw, " and the bleak air atop of 

 it, with a prospect of mountains all about, making 

 you giddy; and then Scotland afar off, and the 

 border-countries, so famous in song and ballad ! 

 It is a day that will stand out like a mountain, I 

 am sure, in my life ! " " Bleak " the air is indeed 



