extent, and above a mile in breadth. In viewing this lake from an eminence, we discern all its bays, shores, and promontories, and in the extensive landscape take in a variety of objects, thrown together with all that beauty, which wood and water, lawns, rising sweeps of corn, villas, villages, and cots, surmounted by immense mountains and rude cliffs, can form to the eye. The country to the right, for many miles, is variegated in the finest manner, by inclo sures, woods, and villas, among which Graystock, Dacre, and Delmain, are seen, whilst to the left nothing but stupendous mountains and rude projecting rocks present themselves, vying with each other for grandeur and eminence.

"

Descending to the village of Pooley, a winding road leads to a small inn, where, on entering a boat, there stands to the right a mountain almost circular, covered with verdure to the crown, arising swiftly from the edge of the water, many hundred feet in height. To the left the lake spreads out its agitated bosom, whitened with innumerable breakers above a mile in breadth; whose opposite shore, in one part, ascends gradually, with cultivated lands, from the village of Pooley, skirting the hills, over which some scattered woods are happily disposed in irregular groves and winding lines, whilst, all above, the brown heath reaches to the summit. This land adjoins a mountain much superior in height to that on the right, rising almost perpendicularly from the lake, with naked cliffs. On its rugged side, through the grey rocks, is torn a passage for a rivulet, whose waters fall precipitate, with a mighty noise, into the deep below. The ground more distant, which is seen still upwards over an expanse of water not less than four miles, consists of lofty rocks and bold promontaries, here and there shewing naked and stormbleaked cliffs; and in other places, scattered over with the springing of young oaks, arising from the stocks of trees, which the unrelenting axe has lately

slain. As we pass along, having doubled two smalt capes, we fall into a bay under the seat of John Robinson, Esq. of Water Meilock. From the very margin of the lake, in this part, the grass ground ascends gradually in an easy slope, where are disposed, in agreeable irregularity, pretty groves of ash; above which, the easy inclining bills display yellow fields of corn, overtopped by the white front of a vener、 able mansion, more noted for hospitality than the elegance of its structure.

"Whilst we sat here to regale ourselves (says Mr. Hutchinson), the barge put off from the shore, to a station where the finest echoes were to be obtained

from the surrounding mountains. On discharging one of their cannon, the report was heard from the opposite rocks, where by reverberation it seemed to roll from cliff to cliff, and return through every cave and valley till the decreasing tumult gradually died away upon the ear. The instant it had ceased, the sound of every distant water-fall was heard, but for an instant only; for the momentary stillness was interrupted by the returning echo on the hill behind, where the report was repeated like a peal of thunder bursting over our heads, continuing for several seconds, flying from haunt to haunt, till once more the sound gradually declined. Again the voice of water-falls possessed the interval, till to the right the more distant thunder arose from other mountains, and seemed to take its way up every winding dell and creek, sometimes behind, on this side, or on that side, running its dreadful course in wonderful speed. When the echo reached the mountains within the line and channel of the breeze, it was heard at once on the right and left, at the extremities of the lake. In this manner was the report of every discharge re-echoed seven times distinctly.-At intervals we were relieved from this entertainment, which consisted of a wonderous kind of tumult and grandeur of confusion, by the music of two French horns,

whose

hose harmony was repeated from every recess which echo haunted on the borders of the lake. → Here the breathings of the organ were imitated, there the bassoon with clarinets; in this place, from the harsher-sounding cliffs, the cornet; in that, from the wooded creek among the caverns and the trilling water-falls, we heard the soft-toned lute, accompanied with the languishing strains of enamoured nymphs; whilst in the copse and grove was still retained the music of the horns. All this vast theatre was possessed by innumerable ærial beings, who breathed celestial harmony.-As we finished our repast, a general discharge of six brass cannon roused us to new astonishment. Though we had heard with great surprise the former echoes, this exceeded them so much that it seemed incredible; for on every hand the sounds were reverberated and returned from side to side, so as to give the resemblance of that confusion and horrid uproar, which the falling of these stupendous rocks would occasion, if by. some internal combustion they were rent to pieces and hurled into the lake. During the time of our repast, the wind was hushed, and the lake, which on our first entrance was troubled and foaming, now became a shining mirror, reflecting reversed mountains, rocks, groves, meads, and vales. The water was so transparent, that we could perceive the fish and pebbles, at the depth of six or eight fathoms.

"We now doubled a woody promontory, and, passing by the foot of Gowberry Park, ascended into the narrow part of the lake, leaving the grassy margins and scattered copse which had bordered the water as we passed by Water Mellock. All around us was one scene of mountains, which hemmed us in, arising with awful and precipitate fronts. Here the white cliffs raised their pointed heads; there the sha en and rifted rocks were split and cavated into. vast shelves, chasms, and dreary cells, which yawned upon the shadowed lake; whilst other steeps, less

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rugged

rugged, were decked with shrubs, which grew on every plain and chink, their summits being embrowned with sun-parched moss and scanty herbage.

"The scene was nobly awful as we approached Starberry Crag. At every winding of our passage, new hills and rocks were seen to overlook those which had but the minute before been new upon our prospect. The clouds hung heavily upon the mountains, rolling in gloomy volumes over their heads, in some places dragging their ragged skirts along the sides of steeps, giving them a deep and melancholy shade; in others admitting the sun-beams, which illuminated the winding dells with a greyish light."

Ulleswater abounds with fish of various kinds, among which is a species of trout peculiar to this water, weighing upwards of 30 pounds; the eels are also of a very large size, and of the finest flavour.

To the above account we cannot refrain from subjoining the following beautiful description of this interesting lake, from the pen of Mrs. Radcliffe:

"The approach to this sublime lake (says that elegant writer), along the heights of Eamont, is exquisitely interesting; for the road, being shrouded by woods, allows only partial glimpses of the gigantic shapes that are assembled in the distance, and awakening high expectation leaves the imagination thus elevated to paint "the forms of things unseen." Thus it was when we caught a view of the dark broken tops of the fells that rise round Ulleswater, of size and shape most huge, bold, and awful, overspread with a blue mysterious tint, that seemed almost supernatural, though according in gloom and sublimity with the several features it involved.

"Farther on the mountains began to unfold themselves; their outlines, broken, abrupt, and intersecting each other in innumerable directions, seemed now and then to fall back, like a multitude at some supreme command, and permitted an oblique glimpse

into the deep vales. Soon after the first reach expanded before us, with all its mountains tumbled round it, rocky, ruinous, and vast; impending, yet rising in wild confusion and multiplied points behind each other.

"This view of the first reach, from the foot of Dunmallet, a pointed woody hill, near Pooley Bridge, is one of the finest on the lake, which here spreads in a noble sheet, nearly three miles long, to the base of Thwaithill-nab, winding round which it disappears, and the whole is then believed to be seen. The character of this view is nearly that of simple grandeur, the mountains that impend over the shore in front are peculiarly awful in their forms and attitudes: on the left the fells soften; woodlands and pastures colour their lower declivities; and the water is margined with the tenderest ver dure, opposed to the dark woods and crags above.

Winding the foot of Dunmallet, the almost pyramidical hill that shuts up this end of Ulleswater, and separates it from the vale of Eamont, we cross Barton Bridge, whence this little river, clear as crystal, issues from the lake, and through a close pass, hurries over a rocky channel to the vale. Its woody steeps, the tufted island that interrupts its stream, and the valley beyond, form altogether a picture, in fine contrast with the majesty of Ulleswater, expanding on the other side to the bridge.

"The characteristics of the left shore of the se cond reach are grandeur and immensity; its cliffs are vast and broken, and rise immediately from the stream, and often shoot their masses over it; the right exhibits romantic wildness, in the rough ground of Dacre Common, and the craggy heights above it; and farther on, the sweetest forms of reposing beauty, in the grassy hillocks, and undulating copse of Gowbarrow Park, fringing the water, sometimes over little rocky eminences that project into the stream, and at others in shelving bays, where the

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lake,