Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-23
MIR. wAKEMAN,s JOURNEYINGs.

Nxus W AA EVVAN'S Sc At Wtndermere, England - More
 About the Lake District-The Four
 1n-Hand Coaches-How to Get a
 Seat With the Drfver-Castle Rock
 The Exciting Trip of the Coach.
 W1NDERMERE, England, May 12. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 The conventional trip taken through the lake district is either after arrival by rail at it's southern headquarters, Windermere, by coach north through thu heart of the region to Keswick, or on arrival by rail at Keswick, over the same grand highway by coach south to Windermere. Thus tour ists, and particularly American tourists, who wish to make the best use of their hours, are enabled to secure very good general idea of the district, and certainly look upon that portion richest in associa- tive interest-while viewing it's finest lakes, loveliest wales and loftiest noun tains-by an expenditure of but one day's time. An old travellers word for it, sell dom in lifetime can day be so exalting- ly filled.
 At Keswick or Windermere you have daily the choice of a score of four-in-h hand coaches. Some are of the old English and Concord patterns, but most are built high in air. open, seating at least twenty fares; are wonderfully constructed for strength and lightness; give delightful sense of breezy altitude to passengers; and furnish in their cavernous "bodies' vast store room for parcels and luggage. Most of these coaches are provided with guards with musical horns and rosy noses, with bles of the nobility in winter, and exist in defiant attitude of protest against ques- tions in summer, and with the handsomest coaoh-horses to be found in all England. You can leave Windermere or Keswick, in either direction, at any hour of the day between seven and two; and the ride of twenty-one miles, through several of the deepest valleys and over two of the high est passes of the region, is usually accom- plished in about five hours.
 You are at Keswick. If you have "booked" at least three days in advance, have paid for two fares beside your own, and have privately consulted with stipen- diary notifications the driver and guard as to the most favorable measures for view ing the region, you can secure your seat on the box of the most popular "going out" coach, at nine in the morning, the envy and glares of the remainder of the ''fares," whom you find represent almost every civilized nationality, Americans and Germans predominating. If you ask questions you will also secure the largest number of wide-winged "out-and- cutters" with which your credence was ever as sailed. Your own knowledge of the lite rature and topography of the lake region is your sole amulet against these. But your coach is away with all the shouting rattle and footing necessary to remind you that at last you are the proud possessor, with it's other monarchs. the guard and the driver, of the box of genuine British institution. The gentle thrill which &C., companies this reflection has barely sub sided when you have passed beautiful Gre | ta Bridge, and with a sudden turn to the right begin the long ascent of Casele Rigg -''the most windin' one for losses O the | stretch" the driver remarks in the single | truthful statement you will receive all the | way to Windermere. But in this long, | slow climb you pass Chestnut Hill, a | quaint little, crooked-r roof house, with it's l historic sycamore, elm and cherry tree, | where Shelly brought his school girl bride and where they chased each other like happy children about the flower bed, until | the stern Cumbrian landlord chased them both away. AS the coach is halted at the top of Castle Rigg, one thousand feet above Keswick, grand and beautiful in | deed is that scene behind. The entire vale | of srrao1 fn yia inE gray and snug is half hidden in its bosom | To the west gleams the upper reaches oi | Derwentwater with the crags of Grass moor beyond Saddleback looms in the northeast. Beyond the tower of old Cross | thwaite church, where Southey lies bur | jed, shines the blue bed of Bassenthwaite | Water. And across the whole lovely vale | where the farms spread in checkerec patches of color to the sun, lofty Skid l daw stands monarch sublime of the Cum | brian north.
 This dragging way over Castle Rigg ii
 one of the two great heights you will at
 tain by coach on your pleasant journey
 The other is at Dunmail Raise, just befor,
 you pass into Westmoreland. You are il
 Cumberland now. This was the Littl
 Britain of long ago. It was the home O
 those fierce and unconquerable Brigante
 who, from the time the region was knowl
 as brlRanUla unIll It Dccd1no SumDerlduu
 beat back the Saxons from the east, tn
 Welsh from the south and Picts from tn
 north, and met every foe outside thei
 mountain gates Marvelously sweet an,
 fragrant is the morning as you nov
 smoothly spin along these noble heights
 But it seems to have scarcely reached tn
 deepest wales. To your right. the west
 for your direction is nearly always du
 south from Keswick to Windermere-ar
 the seemingly endless fells, odorous wit
 the budding heath, and here and there
 mass of color from banks of violets, tn
 gentle breeze stirring the whole fell-sid
 as if with wild and riotous motion and de
 light. In front, the wide, smooth noun
 tain road winds between overhanging lich ened rocks, spans shadowy dingles, and a it's apparent end seems to drop sheer int , measureless sea of blue. But now to tn left down, down, as if into some vas witch cauldron the sight descends, and al tempts to penetrate the films of mist l Morning is late in reaching St. Johns vale Dense and dark in the vale's lowest depths l the mist breaks above in feathery rift where the rays of the eastern sun tlte through in flmy streams of gold. Hal : disclosed behind them are the dark gra You cannot see it clearly; but Scott has 3 nobly described it in ''The Bridal of Trie1 3 main," with its
 ] "wicket of oak as iron hard,
 With iron studded, clenched and barred, . And prong'd portcullis, join'd to guard D The gloomy pass below
 s that you need no better view.
 Above this, almost on a level with yor , coach, which is just beginning the Ion ], | southern descent of Castle Rigg, lies e huge moving cloud. It is slowly passir . down the valley. Suddenly you reali; !, you are above the clouds, for "See u a Striding Edgel" is chorused by many '- your companions. There it lies, this grin s yellowy-black and curved ridge of Helve y lyn, majestic monarch of all this grar t- lake region. It seems across that cloud a be the mighty mural walls of some wei }. isle, nnattainable beyond sea of mou }, 1 tainous waves. A curve in the road for d few moments hides cloud and mountai