A Complete Guide to the English Lakes (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 edition. Excerpt: ... From Gatesgarth begins one of the wildest bits of road in the district. It climbs Buttermere Vale, by an ascent at first gradual, and latterly extremely steep, to the base of Honister Crag. It is a vast stony valley, where sheep and their folds, and a quarryman's hut here and there, are the only signs of civilization. There are no bridges over the stream (the infant Cocker), which must be crossed many times; and where there are no stepping-stones, the pedestrian must wade. Every body walks up the last reaches of the ascent, --so steep and stony is the narrow road, and so formidable its unfenced state. The dark, stupendous, almost perpendicular, Honister Crag frowns above; and as the traveller, already at a considerable height, looks up at the quarrymen in the slate quarries near the summit, it almost takes his breath away to see them hanging like summer spiders quivering from the eaves of a house. These quarrymen are a hardy race, capable of feats of strength which are now rarely heard of elsewhere. No heavily-armed knight, who ever came here to meet the Scot (and there were such encounters on this spot in the ancient border wars) carried a greater weight, or did more wonders in a day than these fine fellows. The best slate of Honister Crag is found near the top: and there, many hundred feet aloft, may be seen (by good eyes) the slate-built hovels of some of the quarrymen, while others ascend and descend many times between morning and night. Now the men come leaping down with their trucks at a speed which appears appalling to strangers. Formerly, the slate was brought down on hurdles, on men's backs: and the practice is still continued in some remote quarries, where the expense of conveyance by carts would be too great, or the roads do...