II. 



STY HEAD PASS, IBOM WASTDAIiE TO BOEROWDALE, 



We have noticed the eastern prong of the fork 

 into which Glaramara divides the head of Borrow- 

 dale. We now have to notice the 

 western, — the Sty Head Pass. The 

 Stake Pass descends, as we saw, upon Stonethwaite. 

 The Sty Head Pass descends upon Seathwaite, — 

 each of these farms being the last dwelling at the 

 head of the dale. 



Antiquarians tell us that Borrowdale was an- 

 ciently called Boredale, " having its name probably 

 from the wild boars which used, in former times, 

 to haunt the woody part of Wastdale Forest ; the 

 hill above it being called Sty Head, where the 

 swine were wont to feed in the summer, and fall 

 down in autumn into this dale, where they fed 

 upon nuts aud acorns. Here are large flocks of 

 sheep ; and anciently were mines of lead and cop- 

 per. Here also, in a very high and perpendicular 

 rock called Eagle Crag, is every year an eyrie or 

 nest of eagles." So says the old history."^ But 

 the traveller will find no swine near Sty Head now, 

 summer or winter. No creature comes to drink at 

 the tarn, — the little clear rippling lake, where the 

 mountaineer throws himself down to rest on the 

 bank, when heated by the ascent from the vales. 

 He has found everything sunny and dry, perhaps ; 



* History and Antiquities of Westmorland and Cumberland, 

 ii. p. 69. — Nicholson and Burn. 



