THE BIRDS OF RYDAL. 



Miss MARY L. ARMITT, 

 Rydal, Westmorland. 



The parish of Rydal contains 3,020 acres. Its mountainous 

 character is evident from the one fact alone, that within this small 

 area lie the summit of a mountain nearly 3,000 feet high and a 

 lake only 180 feet above sea-level. It is drained by the river 

 Rothay, flowing- through its main valley, and by the Rydal Beck, a 

 considerable stream rising- within its boundaries, which joins the 

 Rothay below Smithy Bridg-e. Its boundaries follow in g-eneral 

 the sky-line of the heig-hts which hem in its lake and its streams. 

 A line ruled along- the rugged and much deflected summits of 

 Loughrigg, rising to a general altitude of 1,000 feet, represents 

 its boundary to the south. Where the mass of Loughrigg falls 

 to the dip of Red Bank (which alone separates it from the 

 neighbour-height of Silver How), the boundary cuts down in an 

 arbitrary and almost straight line to the shore of Grasmere 

 Lake ; it follows the shore downwards — passing the exit of 

 the river Rothay from the lake-foot — and completely round the 

 lower end of the lake, till it reaches the grounds of the Prince 

 of Wales Hotel. Thence it turns, after crossing the high-road, 

 along a wall within the grounds of How Foot that borders the 

 drive, and so reaches the older, higher road between Rydal and 

 Grasmere. This it follows upward, mounting with a still 

 higher and older road till the summit is reached at White Moss 

 Tarn, believed by some to be the scene of Wordsworth's 

 Leech-gatherer, and now a tame, domestic duck-pond.* Thence, 

 leaving all tracks, it strikes up the rough fell-side to Dunny 

 Beck, a small stream draining the back of Nab Scar. With 

 the beck it rises and curves round the Scar, till, leaving the 

 source behind, it reaches the bold height of Lord Crag, 

 1,500 feet high. Thence it follows the summits of those heights 

 that form so remarkable an amphitheatre round the upland 

 valley of Rydal Head (or Fairfield basin), touching as it runs 

 northward Heron Crag (2,000 feet), Great Rigg (2,500 feet), 

 and stopping a little short of the actual summit of Fairfield 

 (2,862 feet). At this point it meets the boundary of Barton 

 parish, and turning with it follows the sky-line still, but now- 

 southward and downward (though with little drop at first) to 



* A reedy pool lower down also claims this honour, and more fitly. 



1902 July 1. 



