ADDENDA. IT having been judged, that the principal detached pieces which have appeared on the subject of the Lakes, by esteemed writers, if collected together, might accommodate the reader, and contribute to the chief purport of his manual,—they are here subjoined, along with some other connected articles, and similar descriptions, which relate to the same country. ARTICLE I. DR. BROWN'S LETTER, DESCRIBING THE VALE AND LAKE OF KESWICK. IN my way to the north, from Hagley, I passed through Dovedale; and, to say the truth, was disappointed in it.When I came to Buxton, I visited another or two of their romantic scenes; but these are inferior to Dovedale. They are but poor miniatures of Keswick; which exceeds them more in grandeur than I can give you to imagine; and more, if possible, in beauty than in grandeur. Instead of the narrow slip of valley which is seen at Dovedale, you have at Keswick a vast amphitheatre, in circumfe rence above twenty miles. Instead of a meagre rivulet, a noble living lake, ten miles round, of an oblong form, adorned with a variety of wooded islands. The rocks, indeed, of Dovedale are finely wild, pointed, and irregular; but the hills are both little and unanimated; and the margin of the brook is poorly edged with weeds, morass, and brushwood But at Keswick, you will on one side of the lake, see a rich and beautiful landscape of cultivated fields, rising to the eye, in fine inequalities, with noble groves of oak, happily dispersed, and climbing the adjacent hills, shade above shade, in the most various and picturesque forms. On the opposite shore you will find rocks aud cliffs of stupendous height, hanging broken over the lake in horrible grandeur, some of them a thousand feet high, the woods climbing up their steep and shaggy sides, where mortal foot never yet approached. On these dreadful heights, the eagles build their nest; a variety of water-falls are seen pouring from their summits, and tumbling in vast sheets from rock to rock, in rude and terrible magnificence; while on all sides of this immense amphitheatre, the lofty mountains rise round, piercing the clouds, in shapes as spiry and fantastic as the very rocks of Dovedale-To this I must add, the frequent and bold projection of the cliffs into the lake, forming noble bays and promontories: in other parts they finely retire from it, and often open in abrupt chasms or cliffs, through which at hand you see rich and cultivated vales, and beyond these, at various distances, mountain rising over mountain, among which, new prospects present themselves in mist, till the eye is lost in agreeable perplexity ;-~ Where active fancy travels beyond sense, Were I to analyse the two places into their constituent principles, I should tell you, that the full perfection of Keswick consists of three circumstances, beauty, horror, and immensity united; the second of which is alone found in Dovedale. Of DR. BROWN'S DESCRIPTION OF KESWICK. 195 beauty it hath little: nature having left it almost a desart: neither its small extent, nor the diminutive and lifeless form of the hills, admit magnificence-But to give you a complete idea of these three perfections, as they are joined in Keswick, would require the united powers of Claude, Salvator, and Poussin. The first should throw his delicate sunshine over the cultivated vales, the scattered cots, the groves, the lake, and wooded islands. The second should dash out the horror of the rugged cliffs, the steeps, the hanging woods, and foaming waterfalls; while the grand pencil of Poussin should crown the whole with the majesty of the impending mountains. So much for what I would call the permanent beauties of this astonishing scene. Were I not afraid of being tiresome, I could now dwell as long on its varying or accidental beauties, I would sail round the lake, anchor in every bay, and land you on every promontory and island. I would point out the perpetual change of prospects; the woods, rocks, cliffs, and mountains, by turns vanishing or rising into view: now gaining on the sight, hanging over our heads in their full dimensions, beautifully dreadful; and now by a change of situation, assuming new romantic shapes, retiring and lessening on the eye, and insensibly losing themselves in an azure mist. I would remark the contrast of light and shade, produced by the morning and evening sun; the one gilding the western, and the other the eastern side of this immense amphitheatre; while the vast shadow projected by the mountains, buries the opposite part in a deep and purple gloom, which the eye can hardly penetrate: the natural variety of colouring which the several objects produce, is no less wonderful and pleasing; the ruling tints in the valley being those of azure, green, and gold, yet ever various, arising from an intermixture of the lake, the woods, the grass, and corn-fields; these are finely contrasted by the grey rocks and cliffs; and the whole heightened by the yellow streams of light, the purple hues, and misty azure of the mountains. Sometimes a serene air and clear sky disclose the tops of the highest hills; at others you see the clouds in volving their summits, resting on their sides, or descending to their base, and rolling among the vallies, as in a vast furnace. -When the winds are high, they roar among the cliffs and caverns, like a peal of thunder; then too the clouds are seen in vast bodies, sweeping along the hills in gloomy greatness, while the lake joins the tumult and tosses like a sea. But in calm weather, the whole scene becomes new; the lake is a perfect mirror; and the landscape in all its beauty, islands, fields, woods, rocks, and mountains, is seen inverted and floating on its surface. I will now carry you to the top of a cliff, where if you dare approach the ridge, a new scene of astonishment presents itself, where the valley, lake, and islands seem lying at your feet, where this expanse of water appears diminished to a little pool, amidst the vast immeasurable objects that surround it: for here the summits of more distant hills appear beyond those you had already seen; and rising behind each other in successive ranges, and azure groups craggy and broken steeps, form an immense and awful picture, which can only be expressed by the image of a tempestuous sea of mountains.-Let me now conduct you down again, to the valley, and conclude with one circumstance more, which is, that a walk by still moonlight (at which time the distant water-falls are heard in all their variety of sound) among these nchanting dales, opens a scene of such delicate beauty, repose, and solemnity, as exceeds all description. of ARTICLE II. EXTRACT FROM DR. DALTON'S DESCRIPTIVE POEM, Enumerating the beauties of the Vale of Keswick*. To NATURE's pride, Sweet Keswick's vale, the muse will guide: Let other streams rejoice to roar Thy gentle genius shrinks away From such a rude unequal fray; Through thine own native dale, where rise Tremendous rocks amid the skies, Thy waves with patience slowly wind, * First printed in 1775.-See "Pearch's Collection of Poems," Vol. I. |