JOURNAL OF A TOUR AT ULLSWATER
_A.D. 1805._
On the 7th of November, on a damp and gloomy morning, we left Grasmere
Vale, intending to pass a few days on the banks of Ullswater. A mild and
dry autumn had been unusually favourable to the preservation and beauty
of foliage; and, far advanced as the season was, the trees on the larger
island of Rydal Mere retained a splendour which did not need the
heightening of sunshine. We noticed as we passed that the line of the
grey rocky shore of that island, shaggy with variegated bushes and
shrubs, and spotted and striped with purplish brown heath,
indistinguishably blending with its image reflected in the still water,
produced a curious resemblance, both in form and colour, to a
richly-coated caterpillar, as it might appear through a magnifying glass
of extraordinary power. The mists gathered as we went along: but when we
reached the top of Kirkstone, we were glad we had not been discouraged
by the apprehension of bad weather. Though not able to see a hundred
yards before us, we were more than contented. At such a time, and in
such a place, every scattered stone the size of one's head becomes a
companion.
Near the top of the Pass is the remnant of an old wall, which
(magnified, though obscured, by the vapour) might have been taken for a
fragment of some monument of ancient grandeur--yet that same pile of
stones we had never before even observed. This situation, it must be
allowed, is not favourable to gaiety; but a pleasing hurry of spirits
accompanies the surprise occasioned by objects transformed, dilated or
distorted, as they are when seen through such a medium. Many of the
fragments of rock on the top and slopes of Kirkstone, and of similar
places, are fantastic enough in themselves; but the full effect of such
impressions can only be had in a state of weather when they are not
likely to be sought for. It was not till we had descended considerably
that the fields of Hartshop were seen, like a lake tinged by the
reflection of sunny clouds. I mistook them for Brother's water, but soon
after we saw that lake gleaming faintly with a steely brightness,--then
as we continued to descend, appeared the brown oaks, and the birches of
lively yellow, and the cottages, and the lowly Hall of Hartshop, with
its long roof and ancient chimneys. During great part of our way to
Patterdale we had rain, or rather drizzling vapour; for there was never
a drop upon our hair or clothes larger than the smallest pearl upon a
lady's ring.
The following morning incessant rain till eleven o'clock, when the sky
began to clear, and we walked along the eastern shore of Ullswater
towards the farm of Blowick. The wind blew strong, and drove the clouds
forwards on the side of the mountain above our heads:--two
storm-stiffened, black yew-trees fixed our notice, seen through, or
under the edge of, the flying mists, four or five goats were bounding
among the rocks;--the sheep moved about more quietly, or cowered beneath
their sheltering places. This is the only part of the country where
goats are now found;[3] but this morning, before we had seen these, I
was reminded of that picturesque animal by two rams of mountain breed,
both with Ammonian horns, and with beards majestic as that which Michael
Angelo has given to his study of Moses.--But to return; when our path
had brought us to that part of the naked common which overlooks the
woods and bush-besprinkled fields of Blowick, the lake, clouds, and
mists were all in motion to the sound of sweeping winds;--the church and
cottages of Patterdale scarcely visible, or seen only by fits between
the shifting vapours. To the northward the scene was less
visionary;--Place Fell steady and bold;--the whole lake driving onward
like a great river--waves dancing round the small islands. The house at
Blowick was the boundary of our walk; and we returned, lamenting to see
a decaying and uncomfortable dwelling in a place where sublimity and
beauty seemed to contend with each other. But these regrets were
dispelled by a glance on the woods that clothe the opposite steeps of
the lake. How exquisite was the mixture of sober and splendid hues! The
general colouring of the trees was brown--rather that of ripe
hazel-nuts; but towards the water there were yet bays of green, and in
the higher parts of the wood was abundance of yellow foliage, which,
gleaming through a vapoury lustre, reminded us of masses of clouds, as
you see them gathered together in the west, and touched with the golden
light of the setting sun. After dinner we walked up the vale; I had
never had an idea of its extent and width in passing along the public
road on the other side. We followed the path that leads from house to
house; two or three times it took us through some of those copses or
groves that cover the little hillocks in the middle of the vale, making
an intricate and pleasant intermixture of lawn and wood. Our fancies
could not resist the temptation, and we fixed upon a spot for a cottage,
which we began to build, and finished as easily as castles are raised in
the air. Visited the same spot in the evening. I shall say nothing of
the moonlight aspect of the situation which had charmed us so much in
the afternoon; but I wish you had been with us when, in returning to our
friend's house, we espied his lady's large white dog lying in the
moonshine upon a round knoll under the old yew tree in the garden, a
romantic image--and the elegant creature, as fair as a spirit! The
torrents murmured softly: the mountains down which they were falling did
not, to my _sight_, furnish a background for this Ossianic picture; but
I had a consciousness of the depth of the seclusion, and that mountains
were embracing us on all sides; "I saw not, but I _felt_ that they were
there."
* * * * *
_Friday, November 9._--Rain, as yesterday, till ten o'clock, when we
took a boat to row down the lake. The day improved; clouds and sunny
gleams on the mountains. In the large bay under Place Fell three
fishermen were dragging a net--picturesque group beneath the high and
large crags. A raven was seen aloft; not hovering like the kite, for
that is not the habit of the bird, but passing on with a straightforward
perseverance, and timing the motion of its wings to its own croaking.
The waters were agitated, and the iron tone of the raven's voice, which
strikes upon the ear at all times as the more dolorous from its
regularity, was in fine keeping with the wild scene before our eyes.
This carnivorous bird is a great enemy to the lambs of these solitudes.
The fishermen drew their net ashore, and hundreds of fish were leaping
in their prison. They were all of the kind called skellies, a sort of
fresh water herring, shoals of which may sometimes be seen dimpling or
rippling the surface of the lake in calm weather. This species is not
found, I believe, in any other of these lakes; nor, as far as I know, is
the chevin, that _spiritless_ fish (though I am loth to call it so, for
it was a prime favourite with Izaac Walton), which must frequent
Ullswater, as I have seen a large shoal passing into the lake from the
river Eamont. Here are no pike, and the char are smaller than those of
the other lakes, and of inferior quality; but the grey trout attains a
very large size, sometimes weighing above twenty pounds. This lordly
creature seems to know that "retiredness is a piece of majesty," for it
is scarcely ever caught, or even seen, except when it quits the depths
of the lake in the spawning season, and runs up into the streams, where
it is too often destroyed in disregard of the law of the land and of
nature.
Quitted the boat in the bay of Sandwyke, and pursued our way towards
Martindale, along a pleasant path--at first through a coppice bordering
the lake, then through green fields--and came to the village (if village
it may be called, for the houses are few, and separated from each
other), a scattered spot, shut out from the view of the lake. Crossed
the one-arched bridge, below the chapel, with its bare ring of mossy
wall and single yew tree. At the last house in the dale we were greeted
by the master, who was sitting at his door, with a flock of sheep
collected round him, for the purpose of smearing them with tar
(according to the custom of the season) for protection against the
winter's cold. He invited us to enter and view a room, built by Mr.
Hasell, for the accommodation of his friends at the annual chase of red
deer in his forests, at the head of these dales. The room is fitted up
in the sportsman's style, with a cupboard for bottles and glasses,
strong chairs, and a dining-table; and ornamented with the horns of the
stags caught at these hunts for a succession of years--the length of the
last race each had run being recorded under his spreading antlers. The
good woman treated us with oaten cake, new and crisp; and after this
welcome refreshment and rest, we proceeded on our return to Patterdale
by a short cut over the mountains. On leaving the fields of Sandwyke,
while ascending up a gentle slope along the valley of Martindale, we had
occasion to observe that in thinly-peopled glens of this character the
general want of wood gives a peculiar interest to the scattered cottages
embowered in sycamore. Towards its head this valley splits into two
parts; and in one of these (that to the left) there is no house nor any
building to be seen but a cattle-shed on the side of a hill, which is
sprinkled over with trees, evidently the remains of an extensive forest.
Near the entrance of the other division stands the house where we were
entertained, and beyond the enclosures of that farm there are no other.
A few old trees remain--relics of the forest; a little stream hastens,
though with serpentine windings, through the uncultivated hollow where
many cattle were pasturing. The cattle of this country are generally
white, or light-coloured; but these were dark brown or black, which
heightened the resemblance this scene bears to many parts of the
Highlands of Scotland.
While we paused to rest on the hill-side, though well contented with the
quiet every-day sounds--the lowing of cattle, bleating of sheep, and the
very gentle murmuring of the valley stream--we could not but think what
a grand effect the music of the bugle-horn would have among these
mountains. It is still heard once every year at the chase I have spoken
of--a day of festivity for the inhabitants of this district, except the
poor deer, the most ancient of them all. Our ascent even to the top was
very easy. When it was accomplished we had exceedingly fine views, some
of the lofty fells being resplendent with sunshine, and others partly
shrouded by clouds. Ullswater, bordered by black steeps, was of dazzling
brightness; the plain beyond Penrith smooth and bright, or rather
gleamy, as the sea or sea-sands. Looked down into Boardale, which, like
Skybarrow, has been named from the wild swine that formerly abounded
here; but it has now no sylvan covert, being smooth and bare, a long,
narrow, deep, cradle-shaped glen lying so sheltered, that one would be
pleased to see it planted by human hand, there being a sufficiency of
soil; and the trees would be sheltered, almost like shrubs in a
green-house. After having walked some way along the top of the hill,
came in view of Glenridding, and the mountains at the head of
Grisedale.--Before we began to descend, we turned aside to a small ruin,
called at this day the chapel, where it is said the inhabitants of
Martindale and Patterdale were accustomed to assemble for worship. There
are now no traces from which you could infer for what use the building
had been erected; the loose stones, and the few that yet continued piled
up, resemble those which lie elsewhere on the mountain; but the shape of
the building having been oblong, its remains differ from those of the
common sheep-fold; and it has stood east and west. Scarcely did the
Druids, when they fled to these fastnesses, perform their rights in any
situation more exposed to disturbance from the elements. One cannot pass
by without being reminded that the rustic psalmody must have had the
accompaniment of many a wildly-whistling blast; and what dismal storms
must have often drowned the voice of the preacher!
As we descend, Patterdale opens upon the eye in grand simplicity,
screened by mountains, and proceeding from two heads--Deepdale and
Hartshop--where lies the little lake of Brothers Water, named in old
maps Broader Water, and probably rightly so; for Bassenthwaite Mere at
this side is familiarly called Broad Water; but the change in the
appelation of this small lake or pool (if it be a corruption) may have
been assisted by some melancholy incident, similar to what happened
about twenty years ago, when two brothers were drowned there, having
gone out to take their holiday-pleasure upon the ice on a New Year's
Day.
A rough and precipitous peat-track brought us down to our friends house.
Another fine moonlight night; but a thick fog rising from the
neighbouring river enveloped the rocky and wood-crested knoll on which
our fancy cottage had been erected; and, under the damp cast upon my
feelings, I consoled myself with moralising on the folly of hasty
decisions in matters of importance, and the necessity of having at least
one's knowledge of a place before you realise airy suggestions in solid
stone.
* * * * *
_Saturday, November 10._--At the breakfast-table, tidings reached us of
the death of Lord Nelson, and of the victory of Trafalgar. Sequestered
as we were from the sympathy of a crowd, we were shocked to hear that
the bells had been ringing joyously at Penrith, to celebrate the
triumph. In the rebellion of the year 1745, people fled with their
valuables from the open country of Patterdale, as a place of refuge,
secure from the incursions of strangers. At that time news such as we
had heard might have been long in penetrating so far into the recesses
of the mountains; but now, as you know, the approach is easy, and the
communication in summer time almost hourly; nor is this strange, for
travellers after pleasure are become not less active, and more numerous
than those who formerly left their homes for the purposes of gain. The
priest on the banks of the remotest stream of Lapland will talk
familiarly of Bonaparte's last conquests, and discuss the progress of
the French Revolution, having acquired much of his information from
adventurers impelled by curiosity alone.
The morning was clear and cheerful, after a night of sharp frost. At ten
o'clock we took our way on foot towards Pooley Bridge, on the same side
of the lake we had coasted in a boat the day before. Looked backwards to
the south from our favourite station above Blowick. The dazzling
sunbeams striking upon the church and village, while the earth was
steaming with exhalations, not traceable in other quarters, rendered
their forms even more indistinct than the partial and flitting veil of
unillumined vapour had done two days before. The grass on which we trod,
and the trees in every thicket, were dripping with melted hoar frost. We
observed the lemon-coloured leaves of the birches, as the breeze turned
them to the sun, sparkle, or rather _flash_, like diamonds, and the
leafless purple twigs were tipped with globes of shining crystal.
The day continued delightful and unclouded to the end. I will not
describe the country which we slowly travelled through, nor relate our
adventures; and will only add that on the afternoon of the 13th we
returned along the banks of Ullswater by the usual road. The lake lay in
deep repose, after the agitations of a wet and stormy morning. The trees
in Gowbarrow Park were in that state when what is gained by the
disclosure of their bark and branches compensates, almost, for the loss
of foliage, exhibiting the variety which characterises the point of time
between autumn and winter. The hawthorns were leafless; their round
heads covered with rich green berries, and adorned with arches of green
brambles, and eglantines hung with glossy hips; and the grey trunks of
some of the ancient oaks, which, in the summer season, might have been
regarded only for their venerable majesty, now attracted notice by a
pretty embellishment of green mosses and fern, intermixed with russet
leaves, retained by those slender outstarting twigs, which the veteran
tree would not have tolerated in his strength. The smooth silver
branches of the ashes were bare; most of the alders as green as the
Devonshire cottage-myrtle that weathers the snows of Christmas.--Will
you accept it as some apology for my having dwelt so long on the
woodland ornaments of these scenes, that artists speak of the trees on
the banks of Ullswater, and especially along the bays of Stybarrow
crags, as having a peculiar character of picturesque intricacy in their
stems and branches, which their rocky stations and the mountain winds
have combined to give them? At the end of Gowbarrow Park a large herd of
deer were either moving slowly or standing still among the fern. I was
sorry when a chance companion, who had joined us by the way, startled
them with a whistle, disturbing an image of grave simplicity and
thoughtful enjoyment; for I could have fancied that those natives of
this wild and beautiful region were partaking with us a sensation of the
solemnity of the closing day.
The sun had been set some time, and we could perceive that the light was
fading away from the coves of Helvellyn; but the lake under the luminous
sky was more brilliant than before.
After tea at Patterdale set out again;--a fine evening; the seven stars
close to the mountain top; all the stars seemed brighter than usual. The
steeps were reflected in Brothers Water, and, above the lake, appeared
like enormous black, perpendicular walls. The Kirkstone torrents had
been swollen by the rains, and now filled the mountain pass with their
roaring, which added greatly to the solemnity of our walk. Behind us,
when we had climbed to a great height, we saw one light, very distinct,
in the vale, like a large red star--a solitary one in the gloomy region.
The cheerfulness of the scene was in the sky above us.
Reached home a little before midnight.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] They have since disappeared.
* * * * *
LONDON:
W. SPEAIGHT AND SONS, PRINTERS,
FETTER LANE.