The sudden trouble and annihilation of Pan have reference to a
passage in Plutarch, in his _Treatise on Oracles_, in which he
relates that at the time of the Crucifixion, a voice was heard by
certain mariners, sweeping over the Egean Sea, and crying "Pan is
dead"; and the Oracles ceased. This idea, so beautifully expressing
the overthrow of Paganism, and the flight of the old gods, at the
inauguration of Christianity, Milton has finely elaborated in his
sublime "Hymn on the Morning of the Nativity."
Many of the mountains in the North of England derive their name
from some peculiarity of form: as _Helm-Crag_ in Grasmere,
_Saddle-Back_ near Keswick, _Great Gable_ at the head of
Wast-Water, _The Pillar_ in Ennerdale, _The Hay Stacks_, _The
Haycocks_, _High Stile_, _Steeple_, &c.
There are also very marked resemblances to animate objects, well
known to those familiar with the Lake District, as the _Lion and
the Lamb_ on the summit of Helm-Crag; the _Astrologer_, or _Old
woman cowering_, on the same spot when seen from another quarter;
the rude similitude of a female colossal statue, which gives the
name of _Eve's Crag_ to a cliff in the vale of Derwentwater. An
interesting and but little known Arthurian reminiscence is found
in the old legend that the recumbent effigy of that great king may
be traced from some parts of the neighbourhood of Penrith in the
outlines of the mountain range of which the peaks of Saddleback
form the most prominent points. From the little hill of Castle
Head or Castlet, the royal face of George the Third with its
double chin, short nose, and receding forehead, can be quite
made out in the crowning knob of Causey Pike. From under Barf,
near Bassenthwaite Water, is seen the form which gives name to
the _Apostle's Crag_. At a particular spot, the solemn shrouded
figure comes out with bowed head and reverent mien, as if actually
detaching itself from the rock--a vision seen by the passer by
only for a few yards, when the magic ceases, and the Apostle goes
back to stone. The massy forms of the Langdale Pikes, as seen from
the south east, with the sweeping curve of Pavey Ark behind, are
strikingly suggestive of two gigantic lions or pards, crouching
side by side, with their breasts half turned towards the spectator.
And a remarkable figure of a shepherd's dog, but of no great size,
may be seen stretched out on a jutting crag, about half way up the
precipice which overhangs the road, as the summit of Kirkstone Pass
is approached from Brother's Water. It is not strictly, as stated
in the foregoing verses, on the part of Kirkstone Fell called Red
Screes, but some distance below it on the Patterdale side.
Among the freaks of Nature occasionally to be found in these hilly
regions, is the print of the heifer's foot in Borrowdale, shown
by the guides; and on a stone near Buck-Crag in Eskdale, the
impressions of the foot of a man, a boy, and a dog, without any
marks of tooling or instrument; and the remarkable precipices of
Doe-Crag and Earn-Crag, whose fronts are polished as marble, the
one 160 yards in perpendicular height, the other 120 yards.
On the top of the Screes, above Wastwater, stood for ages a very
large stone called Wilson's Horse; which about a century ago fell
down into the lake, when a cleft was made one hundred yards long,
four feet wide, and of incredible depth.