COCKLBT BECE. 



162 ADVENTUEE ON ESK HATJSE. 



the three stones^ and resting their hands on the 

 third. The stream which is now on the right, 

 divides Lancashire from Cumberland; and West- 

 morland is left behind. 



We know nothing wilder in the district than the 

 next two miles. These are the desolate hills in 

 which the Duddon and the Esk take 

 their rise; and Cockley Beck is the 

 spot where the Duddon must be left^ to cross over 

 to the Esk. There is a farmhouse near the bridge, 

 where horses can be refreshed when a car comes 

 this way, while travellers sit down by the stream to 

 dinner. A melancholy and harassed traveller once 

 took this way, whose adventure is still talked over 

 in Eskdale and Borrowdale. A party of tourists, 

 among whom were two sisters, were on the heights, 

 intending to cross Esk Hatise into Borrowdale, and 

 to spend the night at Seathwaite, — ■ the first settle- 

 ment there. Now there is, as we have seen, another 

 Seathwaite on the Duddon ; and mistakes frequently 

 arise between them. On Esk Hause, one of the 

 ladies lost sight of her party behind some of the 

 rocks scattered among the tarns there, and took a 

 turn to the right instead of the left. A shepherd 

 of whom she inquired her way to Seathwaite 

 pointed down the Duddon valley ; and that way 

 she went till she found herself at Cockley Beck, 

 when the old shepherd-farmer who lived there was 

 getting his supper in the dusk of the autumn 

 evening. He used his best courtesy to induce her 

 to stay till daylight : but she was bent on going at 

 once, — so great would be her sister's terror. As 

 she would not be pursuaded, the old man went with 

 her, putting his crust into his pocket. It was dark, 



